Johannesburg - Shoprite Holdings, South Africa’s biggest food retailer, said first-quarter sales growth slowed as unemployment of 25 percent, job cuts in the mining industry and rising electricity costs reduced demand from its lower-income customer base.
Revenue gained 6.7 percent in the three months through September, the Cape-Town-based company said in a statement on Monday.
That compares with an 11 percent gain in the year through June. Lower price rises in its shops and fewer store openings also hurt revenue, Shoprite said.
The shares fell as much as 5.6 percent, the most since August 24., and traded 5.3 percent lower at R150.46 as of 9:55 a.m. in Johannesburg. That extended the year’s decline to 10 percent, valuing the company at R86 billion ($6.7 billion).
Shoprite sales growth returned to double-digits in October, the company said, while there will be “substantially more” store openings in the three remaining quarters of the year.
BLOOMBERG