{"id":845750,"date":"2025-12-08T08:20:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=845750"},"modified":"2025-12-08T08:20:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:20:54","slug":"spar-records-massive-r5-billion-loss-as-it-quits-international-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/845750\/spar-records-massive-r5-billion-loss-as-it-quits-international-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"SPAR records massive R5 billion loss as it quits international businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SPAR has recorded an over R5 billion loss amid the sale of its Swiss and English businesses, despite positive signs in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its latest financial results for the year ended 26 September, SPAR recorded a profit of R1.1 billion from its continuing operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the group\u2019s discontinued operations, which include its Swiss and English businesses, recorded a loss of R6.1 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the period, the group stated that it had concluded its European strategic exits and continued to make progress on the disposal of AWG in South-West England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group sold SPAR Switzerland for a total equity value of CHF 46.5 million (approximately R1,025 million) in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is entitled to further earn-out payments of up to CHF 30 million (about R660 million) if EBITDA targets are met by 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the sale resulted in a cash outflow of CHF 31 million (approximately R683 million) for the South African retailers, including CHF 11.5 million (approximately R250 million) to the Swiss Competition Commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sale follows the group also exiting its Polish business for R185 million, but it still had to pay R2.7 billion to recapitalise the Polish unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the period, the group also assessed the carrying value of certain assets.\u00a0This resulted in impairments of corporate stores’ goodwill right-of-use assets in Southern Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were also impairment charges related to SPAR Switzerland and AWG. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group stated that these actions were deliberate steps to ensure that the carrying values of assets align with their cash-generating potential and market conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that this provides a clearer earnings base, a more representative balance sheet and improved capital structure visibility going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group stated that its net debt had reduced to R5.4 billion (FY24: R9.1 billion), primarily due to the exits in Switzerland and Poland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, examining the group\u2019s income statement reveals a significant shift, from a profit of R158 million in FY24 to a loss of R5.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group\u2019s earnings per share fell from 182.7 cents in FY24 to a loss per share of 2,507.0 cents. Amid this loss, the group did not declare a dividend for the period. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

South African performance <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite the issues in its international operations, Southern Africa delivered an improved performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes despite continued pressure on customers’ disposable income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa benefited from better execution at the wholesale level, enhanced retailer support programmes and reduced fuel-related logistics costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These factors contributed to improved operational stability and supported profitability through the second half of FY2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Southern Africa experienced improved growth in merchandise revenue sales in FY2025 H2, up 2.9%, which boosted full-year revenue by 2.3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Groceries and Liquor business reported a year-on-year sales increase of 1.9%. Build it saw revenue increase 2.4% year-on-year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPAR Health continued to scale as an attractive growth adjacency with revenue growth of 13.2%, primarily by Scriptwise and the wholesale channel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the period, Pet Storey also acquired the Pet Masters Group businesses and formally launched the Pet Storey brand in September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early indications suggest that Pet Storey is making good initial progress, and as of the end of November 2025, all 12 Pet Masters stores have been converted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept is seeing significant interest with a strong pipeline for conversion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPAR has recorded a massive R5 billion loss amid the sales of several European businesses, as it looks to focus on the South African market. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":789665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[9838],"class_list":["post-845750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-spar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845750","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=845750"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845759,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845750\/revisions\/845759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}