New era for Checkers Sixty60 in South Africa

Shoprite continues to see strong sales growth, with the company now taking over full control of Checkers Sixty60 deliveries in the country.

In an operational update for the six months ended 29 December 2024, the Shoprite Group increased the sale of merchandise from continuing operations by 9.6% to R128.6 billion, excluding its furniture business held for sale.

The group’s core business, Supermarkets RSA, contributed 83.7% to group sales, which achieved sales growth of 10.4%.

Like-for-like sales growth for the period reached 6.1%.

Checkers and Checkers Hyper, including Checkers Sixty60, saw sales growth of 13.5%.

Checkers Sixty60’s sales growth increased by 47.1% over the six months.

Shoprite also announced that it has purchased the remaining 50% shareholding in Pingo Delivery, the group’s last-mile logistics provider. Sixty60 drivers are employed by Pingo.

Following the purchase, the Shoprite group has assumed responsibility for both the sale of merchandise and delivery to the client.

As a result, the delivery income and the Xtra Savings Plus subscription income together with the related
delivery expenses are now included as part of a sale of merchandise and cost of sales respectively.

Returning to the results, Shoprite and Usave reported sales growth of 6.7%.

Shoprite and Checkers LiquorShop also saw sales increase by 12.2%.

Supermarkets RSA opened a net 248 stores over the last year, taking the total 2 485 stores.

Of the net new openings, 30 were Shoprite, 28 Usave, 34 Checkers and 80 LiquorShop stores.

The remaining 76 stores were new format, with Petshop Science adding 53 new stores, Checkers Outdoor adding 11 new stores; Uniq clothing by Checkers adding 11 new stores and Little Me opening one new store.

Other segments

Supermarkets Non-RSA saw sales increase by 4.1% in rand terms excluding hyperinflation.

This equates to an 8.6% contribution to group sales. In constant currency, Supermarkets Non-RSA increased sales by 17.9%.

The segment’s store base also increased by a net 10 stores to a total of 269 stores operating in nine countries.

Looking elsewhere, the group’s Other operating segments, which include OK Franchise, Transpharm, Medirite Pharmacies and more, saw sales growth of 6.2%.

The group’s sales to its OK Franchise operation increased by 8.8%, while its store base increased by a net 18 stores over the last year to end the period with 623 stores.

In September, Shoprite signed an agreement to sell its furniture business including the OK Furniture and House and Home brands (excluding Angola and Mozambique operations) to Pepkor.

The agreement is still pending the fulfilment of the conditions precedent which includes Competition Commission approval.

The group believes that it is highly probable that these furniture operations will be disposed of and consequently they have been classified as discontinued operations.

Shoprite Holding will release its results for the 2025 interim results on Tuesday, 4 March 2025.