Johannesburg - The Shoprite group of companies grew sales 11.2% to R113.7 billion in the the 12 months to June.
Shoprite, which owns brands such as the Shoprite Checkers supermarket group, OK Furniture, House & Homes and MediRite, says in an update to shareholders that like-for-like growth during the period, which strips out store additions, was 4.3%.
“Sales growth was especially strong in the first half of the year due to, amongst others, it having an extra trading day compared to the previous period due to the group closing stores for Nelson Mandela’s funeral in December 2013.”
Shoprite has about 1 400 stores across the group as well as 1 135 Computicket counters in its stops.
The South African supermarket division, the largest division in the group, grew sales by 10.5%, up from 8.7% in the 2014 financial year.
“This is a strong performance considering the prevailing economic conditions and has led to further market share gains for the period,” it says.
The retailer adds its 189 supermarkets outside of SA grew turnover 13.5% in rand terms. In country-specific currency, these operations grew by 15.5%.
Sales growth in its international division was negatively affected by the sale of the Tanzanian business as well as the temporary closure of the Palanca store in Angola in July 2014 due to a fire. The store is being rebuilt.
The furniture division grew turnover by 13.0% despite the highly competitive market conditions persisting, it says.
Shoprite’s results should be published on 19 August.
IOL