{"id":861492,"date":"2026-05-26T10:07:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=861492"},"modified":"2026-05-26T10:07:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:07:06","slug":"retail-giant-in-south-africa-opening-new-stores-across-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/861492\/retail-giant-in-south-africa-opening-new-stores-across-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail giant in South Africa opening new stores across the country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pepkor has massively expanded its store base across South Africa, with its total international store count hitting over 6,600. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its financial results for the six months ended 31 March 2026, the group said that it reached 6,657 retail stores, with\u00a089\u00a0new stores opened and 541 added through acquisitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepkor’s Retail Platform, which includes Clothing and General Merchandise and Furniture, Appliances and Electronics segments, increased sales by 11.2%, with like-for-like sales up 3.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PEP increased sales by 6.3%, with like-for-like growth of 4.3%, and expanded its market share in Babies, Kids, Adult and Home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PEP added 38 new stores, bringing its footprint to 2,725, while PEP Home reached 483 stores and successfully launched online in October 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ackermans grew sales by 1.3%, with like-for-like sales dropping 0.5% off a high prior-year base of 9.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer faced challenges during the seasonal transition, a shift away from lay-buys, and product issues in Babies and Kids. Nevertheless, the group gained market share in schoolwear and footwear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Speciality division increased sales by 49.1%, driven by the acquisitions of Legist, Swagga, and Style, which added 474 stores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like-for-like sales rose by 5.1%, and the group said it expanded market share in adultwear, excluding acquisitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newly acquired Legit also outperformed expectations with 13.0% sales growth in womenswear, while CODE\u2019s performance accelerated via Swagga store conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choice Clothing, Pepkor’s entry into the off-price segment, gained traction, with trading densities up 6.2% and 15 new stores opened, 14 of which opened in one day, expanding the footprint to 118 stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Furniture, Appliances, and Electronics segment, Lifestyle saw sales growth of 13.9%, with online sales up 20%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisition of OK Furniture and House & Home also added 67 stores outside South Africa. The South African transaction has been delayed due to reviews by competition authorities following Lewis’s objection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internationally, the group’s performance in Avenida, Brazil, saw a strong recovery, with like-for-like sales up 10.3% in constant currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PEP Africa also grew sales by 8.7% in constant currency, with like-for-like growth of 9.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Financials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Overall, Pepkor reported a 13.2% increase in group revenue to R54.8 billion and 12.1% growth in normalised headline earnings per share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When looking at total operations, earnings per share rose 9.4% to 90.9 cents per share; headline earnings per share jumped by 7.7% to 90.8 cents per share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s operating profit rose by 9.4% to R6.3 billion, while the group also expanded its retail footprint, scaled its financial services capabilities, and integrated acquisitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese results reflect the strength of our business model and the disciplined execution of our strategy,” said Pepkor CEO Pieter Erasmus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We continue to expand our scalable, retail-powered consumer platform, extending our reach through financial services and the informal market, serving customer needs from babywear to banking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erasmus added that trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the short-term, with like-for-like sales growth of 3.7% recorded in the first eight weeks following March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also remained focused on the continued expansion of the retail platform and on scaling its financial services, including its new banking services and it<\/span>s growth in the informal market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results from continuing operations<\/strong><\/td>Six months ended 31 March 2026<\/strong><\/td>Six months ended 31 March 2025(2)<\/strong><\/td>% change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Revenue (Rm)<\/td>54 846<\/td>48 455<\/td>13.2%<\/td><\/tr>
Operating profit before capital items (Rm)<\/td>6 331<\/td>5 789<\/td>9.4%<\/td><\/tr>
Earnings per share (cents)<\/td>93.3<\/td>83.2<\/td>12.1%<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share (cents)<\/td>93.1<\/td>84.4<\/td>10.3%<\/td><\/tr>
Net asset value per share (cents)<\/td>1 760.7<\/td>1 642.2<\/td>7.2%<\/td><\/tr>
Results from total operations \u2013 including discontinued operations<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
Earnings per share (cents)<\/td>90.9<\/td>83.1<\/td>9.4%<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share (cents)<\/td>90.8<\/td>84.3<\/td>7.7%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pepkor has massively expanded its footprint, with its international store base now standing at over 6,600 stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":861508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[10345,4076],"class_list":["post-861492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-ackermans","tag-pepkor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861492","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=861492"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861521,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861492\/revisions\/861521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}