Woolworths Food versus Checkers

Checkers and Woolworths Food are South Africa’s preferred premium food retailers, and both are showing strong growth.

Checkers, owned by sister retailer and discount chain Shoprite, was founded in 1956 by Norman Hertz Herber in Johannesburg.

The retailer has a history of innovation, which includes launching at-home shopping via the South African Post Office in 1984 and SA’s first grocery delivery system a year later.

In 1991, Shoprite Group, under the leadership of former chief executive Whitey Basson, acquired Checkers.

Under Basson, it showed strong growth and now operates from 321 stores in South Africa under the Checkers and Checkers Hyper brands.

Checkers Sixty60 is the dominant on-demand grocery delivery platform in South Africa, operating from 539 stores across South Africa.

Woolworths Food is owned by Woolworths Holdings, which opened its doors to the public in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1931.

Like Checkers, Woolworths Food is known as an innovative company. In 1974, Woolworths became the first South African retailer to introduce “sell by” dates on food packaging.

They were also the first retailer to offer pre-washed lettuce, and they ran an innovation kitchen to try different recipes and come up with new ideas.

From the outset, Woolworths Food focused on ensuring that the quality of its food was at the highest standard. This is still the case today.

The company invests billions to ensure its customer service is top-notch. It includes store layouts that give customers an excellent shopping experience.

It was the first large South African retailer to launch convenience stores at filling stations, offering clients its products 24 hours per day.

Woolworths Food versus Checkers revenue

Woolworths and Shoprite released their interim period results in March 2025, which showed strong growth for both companies.

Woolworths Food increased its revenue by 11.2% for the interim period from R22.4 billion to R25 billion.

Shoprite reported that the Checkers and Checkers Hyper segment increased its revenue by 13.7% from R39.3 billion to R44.6 billion.

Over the past few years, Checkers has taken a significant market share from Woolworths Food, partly through the success of its Sixty60 service,

Checkers also implemented a strategy to target the high-end food retail space, competing directly with Woolworths Food.

At the beginning of the 2020 financial year, Woolworths Food owned 41% of the combined market share. This number has since dropped significantly to 36%.

Over this period, Checkers maintained an average annual revenue growth rate of 12.7%, while Woolworths Food achieved an average annual revenue growth rate of 8.2%.

While Checkers has maintained a higher revenue growth rate, Woolworths Food improved its revenue growth since 2021, matching that of Checkers in the last two 6-month periods.

Woolworths Food versus Shoprite profit

Woolworths Food reported that its profit before tax increased by 9.4% from R1.43 billion to R1.57 billion, translating to a profit before tax (PBT) margin of 6.3%.

Woolworths Food’s profit before tax margin is much higher than that of other food retailers, which is why many investors view it as a standout company.

Shoprite reported a PBT margin of 4.0% in its latest results, while Pick n Pay reported a PBT margin of -1.8%.

Woolworths Food operates in the high-end food retail space and is expected to have a higher profit margin than Shoprite, which includes budget stores.

A direct comparison between Woolworths Food and Checkers would be more valuable. However, Shoprite has been secretive about Checkers’ standalone performance.

Shoprite has also not shared any meaningful information on how much revenue or profit Checkers Sixty60 generates.

The most it has shared is that Checkers Sixty60 is generating less than 10% of Checkers and Checkers Hyper sales. This would be less than R7.9 billion in sales.