Bad news about Woolworths, Pick n Pay, Shoprite, and SPAR share prices

South Africa’s stock market may be reaching record highs, but the nation’s largest food retailers have seen a significant drop in stock prices over the year’s first half.

South Africa’s JSE All Share Index recently crossed a record 96,000 points despite the economy only growing by 0.1% in Q1 2025.

South Africa is not alone in strong equity performances amidst weak economic performance, with Germany and Canada also hitting record highs despite downgrades in their economic forecasts.

Old Mutual Wealth investment strategist Izak Odendaal emphasised that the stock market tends to focus more on future performance, with South Africa expected to experience a strong improvement in economic growth.

The OECD expects South Africa’s GDP to increase from 0.6% in 2024 to 1.3% in 2025, and other estimates see growth ranging from 1.0% to 1.5%.

Despite the best-case scenario only predicting South Africa’s GDP growth to match population growth, the latest figures indicate a country heading in the right direction.

Odendaal noted that policy support, such as lower interest rates in many countries, should relieve some of the pressure caused by the uncertainty from the USA’s tariff escalation.

Despite the strong performance of local equities, South Africa’s major grocery brands have faced a tough year.

Shoprite, Woolworths, Pick n Pay, and SPAR have all recorded drops in their share prices, ranging from roughly 10% to 25%.

The reasons for these declines differ across all four retailers, ranging from a high base to a massive loss in the latest reporting period. 

Shoprite

South Africa’s largest retailer has seen the strongest performance in 2025 thus far, even if it recorded a drop in its share price of 9.82%.

With R1,000 invested at the start of the year, it would now be worth R915 today. Shoprite has seen a slight stagnation in its share price following a strong few years of growth.

The group’s latest financial results for the 26 weeks ended December 2024 showed that sales increased 9.6% to R128.6 billion.

Despite being a respectable return, it was lower than many had expected from the retailer. The company also trades at a relatively high multiple.

Nevertheless, the company is still showing other signs of growth. The company opened a net of 248 stores over the period.

The company also announced that it will rapidly expand its Sixty60 service to selected Shoprite supermarkets in South Africa, which has been a massive success for its Checkers stores.

Following a successful pilot in Gauteng and the Western Cape, the group announced that Sixty60 would launch in 19 Shoprite stores across eight provinces. 

Pick n Pay

In second place is the Pick n Pay group, whose share price has dropped by nearly 17% over the last year.

Pick n Pay may have declared a loss of R736 million for the 2025 financial year, but this marks a massive improvement from the R3.3 billion loss seen a year prior.

The group stated that the financial year marked a turning point, as the core Pick n Pay grocery segment successfully executed the initial phase of its operational and financial recovery.

This included a R4 billion rights offer and the IPO of Boxer, which raised R8.5 billion. Boxer’s market cap of R29 billion is now larger than Pick n Pay’s R18 billion. 

The Pick n Pay segment saw its trading loss improve to R549 million from R1.5 billion in FY24, and returned to a trading profit in the second half of the financial year ended March 2025.

The loss before tax and capital items of R237 million was far less than the loss of R1.4 billion in the previous financial year, with the recovery driven by a R1 billion drop in the core grocery trading loss.

Although the group is progressing, it warned that its path to break-even may take longer than initially envisaged.

The group no longer expects the Pick n Pay segment to break even on a trading profit-after-lease-interest basis in FY27, and pushed it back by a year.  

Woolworths

In a close third place is luxury retailer Woolworths, with the group seeing its share price also dropping by close to 17% over the last year.

The group’s food business continues to be a strong performer, reporting 11.4% turnover growth and an improved gross profit margin of 24.9% for the 26 weeks ended 29 December 2024.

Its Sixty60 competitor, Woolies Dash, saw sales increase by 49.2%, while online food sales rose 37.2%.

Its on-demand grocery delivery service, Woolies Dash, saw sales increase by 49.2% and online food sales rise by 37.2%.

However, the group continues to feel the pain from its fashion, beauty and home businesses, which continue to be a drag.

The segment experienced turnover growth of only 2%, which was below the country’s low inflation levels.

Although the group attributed this to a temporary setback in product flow and late supplier deliveries, the segment has been a significant issue for the retailer for years.

In addition to its local struggles, the group has faced severe problems in Australia following a disastrous investment in David Jones.

The group invested R29 billion in David Jones, funded entirely by debt in 2015. However, the investment proved to be a significant failure, as the group sold it for only R1.6 billion several years later.

The group’s surviving Australian business, Country Road, also faces intense pressure amidst a poor consumer environment.

Woolworths reported that it breached a debt covenant on a R1.04 billion loan. Although the lender waived the right to seize Country Road’s assets, it still highlights the Australian entity’s liquidity issues.

SPAR

This year’s worst-performer so far has been SPAR, which has seen its share price drop by close to 26% over the last year following a R4 billion loss.

The massive loss in its interim results for the period ending March 2025 comes as the group tries to sell its British and Swiss businesses after disposing of its Polish subsidiary in January.

The British and Swiss businesses recorded an aggregated post-tax loss of R4.4 billion, primarily due to impairments of R4.3 billion.

The total loss from these discontinued operations amounted to R5 billion, significantly reducing the profit of close to R800 million for the South African and Irish businesses.

“Over the period, we made deliberate progress against the milestones we set to simplify and optimise our portfolio and strengthen our balance sheet,” said SPAR Group CEO, Angelo Swartz.

“Looking ahead, our focus remains on driving continued margin improvement, executing effectively in our core markets and delivering on the remaining elements of our strategic reset.”

Swart will also be overseeing the group’s South African operations after assuming operational leadership roles following the resignation of South Africa chief executive, Max Oliva.

Oliva, who served the group for over 30 years, was announced as the new CEO of McDonald’s South Africa earlier this month. 

Share price changes in 2025