{"id":869065,"date":"2026-08-06T08:18:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T06:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869065"},"modified":"2026-08-06T08:41:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T06:41:03","slug":"more-bad-news-for-pick-n-pay-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/869065\/more-bad-news-for-pick-n-pay-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"More bad news for Pick n Pay in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pick n Pay is facing strong opposition from its primary labour union, the South African Commercial, Catering, and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU), as it continues its turnaround plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that a dispute has been filed with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) regarding its Section 189A processes, which could impact 22,000 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that, as part of SACCAWU’s opposition to the S189A (retrenchment) process, the union has filed an application with the Labour Court and referred the dispute to the CCMA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The consultation process remains ongoing under the auspices of the CCMA,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CCMA process was halted<\/strong><\/a> in June following intervention by the Department of Employment and Labour, but Pick n Pay noted that the matters remain pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The consultation process has not yet concluded, and no final outcomes have been determined,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retail giant has been fighting to turn its operations around after it was found to be technically insolvent at the beginning of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2024 financial year, Pick n Pay had seen a 373% drop in profits, leading to a net loss of R3.2 billion, along with the company breaching its debt covenants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This meant that the company’s total liabilities exceeded its total assets by R183 million, making it technically insolvent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poor financials explained why, at the end of 2023, Pick n Pay had introduced Sean Summers as its new CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following years, Summers has made several attempts to right Pick n Pay’s financials, including a R4 billion rights offer and an unbundling of Boxer shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company’s controlling stake in Boxer has been a saving grace for the group, as Boxer has performed strongly in recent years compared to its parent company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Pick n Pay owns approximately 53.1% of Boxer, after selling a large portion of its shares in May 2026 to fund its ongoing turnaround project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this turnaround project, staff costs and operating structures were identified as major liabilities for the company. It also closed several loss-making stores and converted others to the Boxer brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To bring its spending under control, Pick n Pay began a consultation process with its primary labour union, SACCAWU, on 4 May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of this process, SACCAWU has opposed Pick n Pay’s staff restructuring plans and has referred its dispute to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pick n Pay has said that it is exploring all options as alternatives to retrenchments, as the company fights to make its labour policies sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Pick n Pay remains fully committed to engaging in good faith and in accordance with all applicable legal requirements,” it said in a recent trading statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slow growth for the retailer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Pick n Pay Group CEO Sean Summers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a trading statement on 6 August 2026, Pick n Pay outlined its turnover and like-for-like sales for the 20 weeks ended 19 July 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company saw its like-for-like sales grow by approximately 2.6% year-on-year, with growth of 1.9% in its South African operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its turnover in South Africa decreased by 0.4%, which it attributed to the recent planned closure or conversion of underperforming stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pick n Pay’s company-owned stores in South Africa saw their like-for-like sales grow by 3.3%, the largest growth among its sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said that like-for-like growth is currently its main target indicator for its South African operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across all its segments, Pick n Pay Clothing recorded the worst like-for-like sales growth, dropping to -1.3% and being the only segment to see a decline in the 20-week period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the company said it is happy with the performance of its clothing section, which it described as “regaining its momentum”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said market conditions in South Africa had remained highly constrained, due to soft economic growth and elevated fuel prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It noted that it is pleased with the continued strong performance of Boxer, which it said “continues to gain market share”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“PnP SA Supermarkets is showing an improved like-for-like performance relative to H2 FY26. Despite this improvement, much remains to be done,” the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that several achievements and turnaround initiatives need to be completed for the company to meet its break-even target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like-for-like sales growth in Pick n Pay segments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Like-for-like sales growth<\/strong><\/td>H1 FY26<\/strong><\/td>H2 FY26<\/strong><\/td>20 weeks ended 19 July 2026<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
PnP South Africa<\/td>4.4% <\/td>1.3%<\/td>1.9%<\/td><\/tr>
PnP SA Supermarkets <\/td>3.7%<\/td>1.9%<\/td>2.6%<\/td><\/tr>
PnP SA company-owned supermarkets<\/td>4.8%<\/td>3.0%<\/td>3.3%<\/td><\/tr>
PnP SA franchise supermarkets<\/td>1.8%<\/td>-0.2% <\/td>1.3%<\/td><\/tr>
PnP Clothing standalone stores<\/td>7.5% <\/td>-5.6%<\/td>-1.3%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pick n Pay is fighting to right its business, but is facing pressure from labour unions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":811720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2085249521441780060","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2168155950671471","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18193306993337879","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[6655,4067,19960],"class_list":["post-869065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-boxer","tag-pick-n-pay","tag-sean-summers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869065","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869065"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869085,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869065\/revisions\/869085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}