Shoprite selling more of its shopping malls in South Africa

South Africa’s biggest retailer, Shoprite, is continuing to sell its shopping mall assets across the country.

The Competition Commission has recommended the approval of the latest proposed sale of Sitari Village Centre in Croydon, Cape Town.

The retail group has been shooting the lights out financially, boosting sales and profits while driving significant growth in digital and same-day delivery service, Checkers Sixty60.

Despite this growth, the group has also made a strategic move to dispose of some of its other brands and assets.

This includes the sale of its OK Furniture and House & Home brands.

The overall strategy is to focus its business on the retail food operations, which have driven much of its success.

This also means that assets in the shopping centre space are getting the chop.

Shoprite’s property portfolio comprises both owned and head-leased properties, including vacant land, retail shopping centres, stand-alone supermarket buildings, distribution centres, and offices.

The Competition Commission announced on Thursday (20 February) that it has recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the sale of the Shoprite-owned Sitari Village Centre to the FPG Group.

The approximately 12,000 square meter centre is part of the luxury Sitari Country Estate development in Cape Town, near Somerset West.

The mall is categorised as a ‘neighbourhood shopping centre’ serving the nearby community, with tenants such as Checkers, Home etc., Pick n Pay Clothing and Woolworths Food.

The mall’s potential new owners, the FPG Group, have various investments in property, including office, retail, and industrial spaces in the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Gauteng and North-West provinces.

It owns various rentable retail centres in the Western Cape Province comprising neighbourhood and local convenience retail centres.

FPG has been one of the main buyers of Shoprite’s shopping centres, having also acquired the Drakenstein Centre in Paarl in September 2024, and the Sandown Retail Crossing shopping centre in November.

The Drakenstein Centre is a smaller 9,000-square-meter shopping mall that was owned and developed by the Shoprite Group.

Sandown Retail Crossing is located on the corner of Wood Drive and Sandown Road in Parklands, Cape Town.

The shopping centre opened in 2012 and has a gross leasable area (GLA) of 26,800 sqm with 42 stores.

FPG is not the only one grabbing the opportunity to buy, though. In January 2025, the Competition Commission also recommended the approval of the sale of Brookside Mall to Imperial Red.

The proposed transaction will now move to the Competition Tribunal for consideration.

Images of Sitari Village Centre

Retail for sale

While Shoprite is disposing of its wholly-owned retail centres, it is still finding opportunities to expand its other bases.

In 2024 the group took the opportunity to add specific stores from its competitors to its burgeoning retail portfolio.

These acquisitions are much smaller and more focused in line with the group’s stated strategy to concentrate on the food retail side of the business.

This is in contrast to retail groups SPAR and Pick n Pay, which have been right-sizing their businesses.

SPAR, in particular, has told investors that it plans to sell its headquarters and other ‘non-core’ properties to raise upwards of R200 million to help pay off its debts.

Pick n Pay, meanwhile, has been closing and selling loss-making supermarkets across the country to help contain losses and improve is finances and operations.

In October 2024, the Competition Commission approved proposed transactions that would see Shoprite Checkers acquire SPAR and TOPS stores in Carolina and Diepkloof, along with family-owned liquor stores.

In its latest reporting Shoprite Group opened 68 stores during the first quarter of the year (ending September 2024).

The majority of these, a net 53 stores, were opened in South Africa.