Shoprite Checkers taking over many Pick n Pay stores across South Africa

Checkers is taking over yet another retail store previously home to a Pick n Pay, with the Shoprite-owned company continuing to benefit from its competitor’s troubles.

Retail giant Hypros said it secured Checkers as the new anchor tenant in Hyde Park Corner in 2025. The store will launch in July 2025.

Hyde Park Corner, situated between Sandton and Rosebank in Johannesburg, has approximately 40,000 square meters of retail space.

The affluent clientele in surrounding neighbourhoods primarily frequents the mall, which is seen as the place for rich people to shop.

However, in September 2024, Pick n Pay closed its store in the centre due to a series of problems. The change at Hyde Park Corner is one of many instances of Checkers taking over Pick n Pay’s stores.

In 2024, Pick n Pay announced that it was closing poorly performing stores as part of its ‘back to basics’ turnaround strategy.

Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers said over 100 stores would close or be converted to Boxer stores as part of the retailer’s turnaround strategy.

In a trading update for the 45 weeks ending 5 January 2025, Pick n Pay said it had closed 32 supermarkets, including 24 company-owned and eight franchise stores.

This came after a seriously challenging period for the group, where it posted a R3 billion loss in the 2023/24 financial year.

The group became technically insolvent in 2024, which it managed to turn around after it concluded a R4 billion rights offer and an IPO of Boxer worth R8 billion.

While Pick n Pay continues to close stores across South Africa, Shoprite has gone the opposite direction, opening hundreds of new outlets.

In the 26 weeks ending December 2024, Shoprite saw a sharp increase in store openings, with 264 new stores opening across its South African segments year-on-year.

This included 37 new Checkers stores, 32 new Shoprite stores, and 81 new Shoprite and Checkers Liquor stores.

Like the Hyde Park Corner store, Shoprite’s aggressive expansion has targeted former Pick n Pay sites which became available.

At the beginning of 2024, Shoprite launched eight new supermarkets at sites previously occupied by Pick n Pay on Johannesburg’s East Rand. Seven of these stores were branded as Checkers stores.

In December 2024, News24 also reported that Shoprite launched three new supermarkets at former Pick n Pay sites in Gauteng.

Hyprop results

The announcement of Checkers coming to Hyde Park Corner was included in Hyprop’s interim results for the six months ended December 2024, which showed a solid performance.

The group’s income for HY2025 increased by 14.5% from R668 million in HY2024 to R765 million, with its income per share also increasing to 201.4 cents.

The group said the increase was underpinned by a 34% increase in the income from its Eastern European portfolio to R308 million.

The operating income from the South Africa portfolio increased 19% compared to HY2024 to R830 million. This was boosted by acquiring the R1.6 billion Table Bay Mall in the final months of 2023.

However, the group’s performance was tempered by higher interest costs, as the Table Bay Mall purchase was fully debt-funded.

Hyprop declared an interim dividend of 113.43 cents per share.

The group added that the full-year dividend for FY2025 will be increased from 75% to 80% of the group’s distributable income from the South African and Eastern European portfolios.