{"id":706654,"date":"2023-07-25T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T07:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=706654"},"modified":"2023-07-25T09:53:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T07:53:56","slug":"r1-3-billion-load-shedding-bill-for-south-africas-biggest-retailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/706654\/r1-3-billion-load-shedding-bill-for-south-africas-biggest-retailer\/","title":{"rendered":"R1.3 billion load shedding bill for South Africa&#8217;s biggest retailer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s biggest retailer Shoprite has spent well over R1 billion on diesel to power generators to help mitigate the effects of load shedding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an operational update for the 52 weeks ending 2 July 2023, the group said it increased its total sales of merchandise by 16.9% to roughly R215 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group also added a net 340 stores, taking its total to 3,324 stores from continuing operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group&#8217;s core business, Supermarkets RSA, saw sales growth of 17.8% (like-for-like 10.3%), which contributed 80.8% to group sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group&#8217;s internal selling price inflation also measured 10.1% (first half period 9.4%; second half period 10.8%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"IlQGIitHEA\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/706512\/grocery-items-on-the-chopping-block-for-cash-strapped-south-africans\/\">Grocery items on the chopping block for cash-strapped South Africans<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Grocery items on the chopping block for cash-strapped South Africans&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/706512\/grocery-items-on-the-chopping-block-for-cash-strapped-south-africans\/embed\/#?secret=7KxREu06Ot#?secret=IlQGIitHEA\" data-secret=\"IlQGIitHEA\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Checkers and Checkers Hyper saw reported sales growth of 18.0%, whilst Shoprite and Usave saw growth of 15.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LiquorShop sales jumped by 30.8%, with first-half sales growing by 35.6% &#8211; which was elevated following lockdown closures the prior year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Non-RSA supermarkets saw sales increase by 16.4%, and contributed 9.1% to the group&#8217;s sales (in rand terms). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group&#8217;s furniture business reported a 5.1% increase (2.0% like-for-like) in sales for the period, while the group&#8217;s other operating segments saw a 13.3% increase over the period.  <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/shoprite-52-weeks-2-July-2023.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"313\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/shoprite-52-weeks-2-July-2023-1024x313.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-706656\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/shoprite-52-weeks-2-July-2023-1024x313.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/shoprite-52-weeks-2-July-2023-300x92.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/shoprite-52-weeks-2-July-2023-768x235.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/shoprite-52-weeks-2-July-2023.jpg 1318w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Despite the growth in customers and increasing market share, the group said several issues still affected the period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much like other major retailers in South Africa, increased load shedding came with a significant cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The cost of<strong> diesel to power generators during load-shedding across our Supermarkets RSA store base amounted to R1.3 billion<\/strong>. It is important to note that this cost became significant at higher stages of load shedding, which occurred from September 2022,&#8221; the group said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, the group said it remained resolute in bringing lower prices and value to its customers, which will lead to the group&#8217;s full-year gross margin being lower than reported last year (restated 2022: 24.5%). This decline, however, is expected to be lower than the gross margin reported in the group&#8217;s 2023 interim results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Other less considerable but still noteworthy expenses include the impact of a full year of distributions paid to Shoprite Group employees from the Shoprite Employee Trust and the onboarding of the 4 480 employees from January this year, as part of the above-mentioned stores acquired from Massmart,&#8221; it added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It said it would release its year-end results for the period ended 2 July 2023 on 5 September 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/706620\/meat-is-back-on-the-menu-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Meat is back on the menu in South Africa<\/a><br><\/strong><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shoprite spent R1.3 billion on diesel to power generators so that it could keep operating during load shedding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":660827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[5223,26,7520],"class_list":["post-706654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-checkers","tag-headline","tag-shoprite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706654"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":706684,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706654\/revisions\/706684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}