{"id":882772,"date":"2026-11-08T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=882772"},"modified":"2026-11-06T19:53:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T17:53:24","slug":"pick-n-pay-shutting-down-stores-across-south-africa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/882772\/pick-n-pay-shutting-down-stores-across-south-africa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pick n Pay shutting down stores across South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pick n Pay has closed 284 stores across South Africa and its other markets since Sean Summers returned as Group CEO in September 2023, as the retailer continues an aggressive turnaround strategy to restore profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy has been a significant shift for Pick n Pay, which has found itself operating too many underperforming stores, contributing to mounting financial losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summers returned to the company in September 2023 and introduced a six-pillar turnaround strategy, with resetting the store estate identified as one of its central priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The objective was to move away from pursuing growth at all costs and instead focus on a smaller network of stores capable of generating sustainable profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the group’s latest interim results, covering the 26 weeks ended 30 August 2026, Pick n Pay reported that it had closed another 20 stores outright, comprising 15 company-owned stores and five franchise outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closures have taken place progressively over several reporting periods. In 2024, Pick n Pay closed 53 stores outright, including 20 company-owned stores and 33 franchise outlets. Another five stores were converted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following financial year saw a further 103 outright closures, comprising 55 company-owned stores and 48 franchise stores, as well as 34 converted closures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2026, the retailer closed another 108 stores outright, including 39 company-owned stores and 69 franchise outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included the termination of its Namibian franchise agreement, which resulted in the closure of 36 stores. A further 42 stores were converted during the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the outright closures across these reporting periods, 118 were Pick n Pay supermarkets and hypermarkets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summers said the company was deliberately moving away from its previous expansion strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Moving forward, the Group’s focus for Pick n Pay will not be ‘scale-at-all-cost’. We will focus on being a smaller but more profitable business in the short term, with fewer but better stores,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will ensure long-term sustainability and generate genuine growth opportunities in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is starting to see results<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
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Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The store review involved assessing loss-making locations individually to determine whether they could return to profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Management said the review focused on understanding the reasons behind underperformance and the prospects for turning each store around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Certain loss-making stores are not suitable for conversion to Boxer or Pick n Pay franchise stores and will be closed,” the group explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that, in some instances, the remaining lease terms and associated liabilities made closure financially preferable to continuing operations. The retailer also wanted to reduce competition between its own brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pick n Pay increasingly targets middle-income and more affluent consumers, while Boxer focuses on less affluent segments of the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Management said some underperforming Pick n Pay locations were better suited to Boxer, with conversions helping prevent further losses while supporting Boxer’s expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restructuring is beginning to show results. In the latest interim results, Pick n Pay’s trading loss narrowed by 16.9% to R516 million, compared with R621 million in the corresponding period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its gross profit margin improved from 16.8% to 17.5%, while company-owned supermarkets recorded like-for-like sales growth of 2.4%, ahead of internal selling price inflation of 1.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group trading profit increased by 58.1% to R490 million, while its headline loss narrowed by 31.9% to R299 million. The group also reported R10 billion in net cash, including R7.7 billion within Pick n Pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pick n Pay has closed 284 stores across South Africa and its other markets since Sean Summers returned as Group CEO in September 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":861350,"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":"2119385955211620669","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2265527357600996","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18096256703253719","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[4067,853],"class_list":["post-882772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-pick-n-pay","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882772","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":882794,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882772\/revisions\/882794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}