{"id":853424,"date":"2026-03-10T09:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=853424"},"modified":"2026-03-10T09:29:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:29:27","slug":"major-retailer-opening-large-number-of-new-stores-across-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/853424\/major-retailer-opening-large-number-of-new-stores-across-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Major retailer opening large number of new stores across South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Homechoice Retail is undergoing a massive expansion of its showrooms across South Africa as it hunts for new customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 2025 financial results, Weaver Fintech, Homechoice’s parent company, said showrooms are a key growth driver in retail, as they deliver high customer engagement and a full-service offering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expansion of the showroom network from 37 in 2024 to 60 locations in 2025<\/strong> supported a 24% increase in showroom sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

44% of new customers were also acquired via showrooms (2024: 32%).\u00a0Revenue from the Homechoice Retail division grew 6% to R2 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trading profit rose 32% in spite of a softer second half, as the retail division tightened credit granting to improve return on assets and reduce risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that the retail business has been restructured to drive double-digit operating margins, with a future focus on cash generation through reduced credit terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a focus on a more cash-generative, asset-efficient model, the retail division recorded a R244 million non-cash, one-off impairment charge to align the value of its retail assets with the new strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis year we took deliberate steps to strengthen the quality and profitability of our Retail business,” said Chris de Wit, CEO of Homechoice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While tighter credit impacted second-half growth, the shift positions us for healthier returns in 2026. Our expanded showroom network continues to drive strong customer acquisition and supports a more modern, customer-centric retail model.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financials<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Last year, the listed entity Homechoice International plc changed its name to Weaver Fintech Ltd, marking the group’s primary focus on fintech. It owns the PayJustNow and FinChoice brands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the group’s whole operations, revenue increased by 23% to R5.5 billion. Group trading profit grew 41% to R1.1 billion, driven by the group’s fintech business, which contributed 93%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Group now serves more than 4.3 million customers, and adds more than 120,000 new fintech sign-ups every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur fintech ecosystem continues to deliver exceptional growth through the expansion of high-margin revenue streams and the engagement of our large active customer base, coupled with the low cost of digitally acquiring new customers,” said CEO of Weaver Fintech Sean Wibberley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Fintech business has a sizeable opportunity to grow market share across its payments, lending and insurance products.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings per share increased 40% to 552.7 cents, and the board increased its total dividend for the year by 42% to 272 cents per share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that allocating capital to support its fintech business led to another strong performance, with the division reporting revenue growth of 36% to R3.4 billion. Fee revenue stood at R1.3 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weaver’s fintech platform now serves 3.4 million app users (up 73%), who perform 7 million digital transactions annually (up 52%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0group said that the Payments and Insurance verticals continue to lead fee-based growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, its shopping platform also expanded as a major engagement channel, delivering 7.3 million monthly app logins and contributing to a\u00a0170% increase in B2B revenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metric<\/strong><\/td>2025 Value<\/strong><\/td>Year-on-Year Growth<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Group Revenue<\/strong><\/td>R5.5 billion<\/td>+23%<\/td><\/tr>
Group Trading Profit<\/strong><\/td>R1.1 billion<\/td>+41%<\/td><\/tr>
Customers<\/strong><\/td>4.3 million<\/td>+40%<\/td><\/tr>
HEPS<\/strong><\/td>552.7 cents<\/td>+40%<\/td><\/tr>
Full-Year Dividend<\/strong><\/td>272.0 cents per share<\/td>+42%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n


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

Homechoice has seen a massive increase in its showroom count despite its parent company mainly focusing on fintech. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":731265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[16452,23350],"class_list":["post-853424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-homechoice","tag-weaver-fintech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853424","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=853424"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853435,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853424\/revisions\/853435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}