Johannesburg - Pick n Pay planned to employ 5 000 people a year as it opened new stores in Africa’s most advanced economy, the retailer said on Monday.
Pick n Pay, which opened about 100 grocery stores last year despite subdued retail sales and gross domestic product growth of 2 percent, was aiming for “a bit more this year”, chief executive Richard Brasher said.
Pick n Pay employs about 36 000 staff. “Most of these jobs will be in our new stores,” Brasher said.
Bigger rival and market leader Shoprite said in February that it had employed almost 7 000 more people in the six months to December in several new outlets.
Shoprite also said it planned to open 91 new supermarkets in South Africa in the next 18 months. Pick n Pay has lost ground to Shoprite and other rivals in the last few years after failing to invest in new stores and paying out much of its profit as dividends.
The government is desperate to create jobs in a nation where the unemployment rate stands at about 25 percent.
Shares rose 0.51 percent to R58.90.
Reuters