Shoprite raises dividend as it reports record sales

Retailer Shoprite, the owner of Usave and Checkers, has reported record revenue in its year to end-June, increasing its dividend and reporting market share gains amid a focus on online sales and mid-to-higher-level consumers.

The group raised its final dividend by 39 percent to 227c for its year to June 28, saying it had cut debt and improved its cash position despite the disruptive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shoprite said it market share had increased for 16 consecutive month up to and including June, with trading profit increasing 10.4 percent to R8.3bn during its financial year, excluding the effects of hyperinflation in Angola. The two weeks preceding SA’s level 5 lockdown resulted in elevated sales growth across all three of Shoprite’s supermarket brands, the group said, with significant growth reported by Checkers, which has repositioned itself for SA’s mid-to-upper-end consumers. During the year, the group launched its digital shopping application Checkers Sixty60 and its Checkers Xtra Savings Rewards Programme, which ended the year with 4.7-million customers registered. There have been 620,000 application downloads of Checkers Sixty60, and it is SA’s number two shopping application, the group said.

“In a challenging year we are proud to report the group’s 6.4% increase in sales to a record R156.9bn,” said CEO Pieter Engelbrecht.

The core Supermarkets SA business increased sales by 8.7 percent to R122.4bn. The group’s total dividend for the period was 383c from 319c previously.

In morning trade on Tuesday, Shoprite’s share was up 8.30 percent to R126.08, putting it on track for its best one-day performance in over a month.

Business Day