{"id":841218,"date":"2025-10-30T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=841218"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:46:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:46:03","slug":"pick-n-pay-wants-to-beat-checkers-and-woolworths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/841218\/pick-n-pay-wants-to-beat-checkers-and-woolworths\/","title":{"rendered":"Pick n Pay wants to beat Checkers and Woolworths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pick n Pay chief executive Sean Summers says he is on a mission to make Pick n Pay the top supermarket chain in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summers shared his views during a Biznews interview<\/a> following Pick n Pay\u2019s interim results for the 26 weeks ended 31 August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer\u2019s turnover grew 4.9% to R58.8 billion, driven mainly by Boxer\u2019s strong performance of 13.9% turnover growth to R22.52 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Pick n Pay still contributed the biggest share of turnover, at R36.30 billion, this reflects turnover growth of only 0.1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company explained that the lacklustre revenue growth was due to a reduction in the company\u2019s store estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last year, Pick n Pay reduced its company-owned and franchise supermarkets by a net 59. These closures affected its top line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Summers is not concerned about the group’s shrinking store estate. In fact, he believes it will help Pick n Pay better serve its customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe optimisation of our store estate has removed a large number of loss-making stores out of the system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe smaller store estate allows us to serve our customers better and to support our long-term sustainable growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Pick n Pay does not see the competitive retail space as a race for which retailer has the most stores. \u201cIt is not about size. It is about being the best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are genuinely on a mission again to put Pick n Pay at the top of being the best supermarket chain in South Africa,\u201d Summers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He highlighted that Pick n Pay was the top retailer in 2007 when he left the company after a decade at the helm. \u201cIt took time to get there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summers is now working to retain its top position, which it held eighteen years ago, where it was the retailer of choice among millions of South Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise and fall of Pick n Pay<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Summers is a Pick n Pay stalwart who worked for the company from 1974 to 2007. He became managing director in 1996 and CEO in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his tenure as CEO, Summers made Pick n Pay the clear grocery market leader in South Africa with an average annual revenue growth rate of 16%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pick n Pay\u2019s growth rate was significantly higher than Shoprite\u2019s average annual revenue growth rate of 11% over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also generated more revenue than Shoprite during this period, passing Shoprite\u2019s revenue from 2003 to 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, things did not go as planned after Summers left the company. Pick n Pay quickly lost market share and even became technically insolvent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company was in such a dire situation that the board asked Summers to return as chief executive in 2023 to fix the mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He took on the challenge, but warned investors that it would take time to return Pick n Pay to its former glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer admitted that Pick n Pay was destroyed and hollowed out from the inside. \u201cNothing that happened to us was not self-inflicted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have forgotten what we stood for and what we really believe in. Even more importantly, we forgot what we don\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said it would take time to reinstate the institutional knowledge that made them South Africa\u2019s top retailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pick n Pay versus Shoprite<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The images below, courtesy of The Outlier, show the rise and fall of Pick n Pay over the last two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pick n Pay chief executive Sean Summers says he is on a mission to make Pick n Pay the top supermarket chain in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":841222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[4067,19960,7520],"class_list":["post-841218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-pick-n-pay","tag-sean-summers","tag-shoprite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841218","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841412,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841218\/revisions\/841412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}