Shoprite, South Africa’s largest retailer, opened its 1 000th store in Africa yesterday. It said the Checkers store would be one of 129 new supermarkets the group would open across Africa between now and November 2014.
The retailer said about 20 would be outside South Africa. Shoprite’s group chief executive Whitey Basson said it was fitting for the 1 000th one to be branded Checkers since he regarded the acquisition of the ailing Checkers chain of 170 supermarkets in 1991 to be one of the biggest challenges in his career in retail.
The new store will create 190 jobs, bringing the total number of people employed by Shoprite to 114 000. Shoprite’s competitors Woolworths have more than 1 000 stores, including its Australian operations, and Pick n Pay Group has about 1 027 stores.
Shoprite lost 0.38 percent to close at R176.81 yesterday.