Shoprite continues to increase sales and profits – despite having to fork over R500 million to keep load shedding at bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the group’s results for the six months ended 31 December 2023 (H1 2024), CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said that the 14% (R12.4 billion) increase in sales from Shoprite’s core business segment Supermarkets RSA comes off the back of sales growth of 17.5% over the prior period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Profit for the period jumped 4.2% to R3.4 billion from R3.27 billion in H1 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group has also seen a period of uninterrupted market share gains in its core business for 58 months, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Checkers and Checkers Hyper saw sales growth of 13.7%, with Checkers Sixty60 increasing sales by 63.1% (H1 2023: 86.8%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The store base with Checkers Sixty60 increased from 394 sites in H1 2023 to 505 stores in H1 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shoprite and Usave increased sales by 13.1%, with the former growing sales by 13.2% after acquiring 51 stores for Massmart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The segment’s LiquorShop business increased sales by 25.2% (17.4% when excluding the contribution from Massmart). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding smaller, adjacent stand-alone stores, 41 were opened in the six-month period, including 10 UNIQ clothing stores, taking the total to 19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supermarkets Non-RSA increased sales in rand terms by 6.2%, while sales in the group’s furniture segment increased by 1.7%, with like-for-like sales rising by 0.7% <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group’s other operating segments, including OK Franchise, Transpharm and Medirite Pharmacies, saw sales increase by 23.1%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the increase in sales, the operating environment in South Africa remained incredibly challenging, especially when considering the cost of diesel generations during load shedding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group spent R500 million on diesel to power generators over the 182-day period, which comes out to R2.75 million a day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although this cost severely impacts trading profit, Shoprite still recorded an 8.6% increase in headline earnings to 610.5 cents per share when including discontinued operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group also upped its interim dividend by 7.7% to 267 cents per share. <\/p>\n\n\n\nFinancials<\/strong><\/td> H1 2023<\/strong><\/td> H1 2024<\/strong><\/td> % Change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Basic earnings per share (cents)*<\/td> 574.3<\/td> 613.7<\/td> +6.9%<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> Headline earnings per share (cents)*<\/td> 562.3<\/td> 610.5<\/td> +8.6%<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> Interim Dividend (cents)<\/td> 248.0<\/td> 267.0<\/td> +7.7%<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
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