Pick n Pay said its interim headline loss shrank by nearly 32% to R299 million. The retailer released its half-year results on Monday.
Sales at company-owned Pick n Pay stores in South Africa rose 2.4% in the 26 weeks to the end of August. The group called this growth satisfactory and said it matched similar competitors.
“Our customers are coming home to Pick n Pay; there is no doubt about it,” CEO Sean Summers said during the results presentation.
The group said the smaller loss came from its value chain Boxer and lower losses in the Pick n Pay segment. The Pick n Pay segment’s trading loss fell 17%, thanks to better profit margins and controlled costs.
Franchise supermarkets grew like-for-like sales by 1%. That was slightly better than the 0.9% reported for the full 2026 financial year.
Summers said shoppers were under heavy pressure after the US-Iran war pushed up fuel prices and inflation. He estimated this cost the group about 3% of its total sales.
“For every 1% of total sales that we lose, it equates to about R140 to R150 million of lost income,” he said. He also spoke of an “orange swan event”, in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump.
Group turnover grew 2.4% to R60.5 billion. Boxer, in which Pick n Pay owns a 53% stake, grew sales by 6.3% to R24 billion.
Revenue from the South African business fell 0.5% to R35 billion. The group closed 19 supermarkets during the period. Sales in the rest of Africa rose almost 11% to R1.68 billion, helped by a stronger Zambian kwacha.
The gross margin rose to 18.8%. Trading profit climbed more than 58% to R490 million. The group said it held about R10 billion in net cash, including R7.7 billion within Pick n Pay.
Online turnover grew by more than 35% in the first half. The group said Pick n Pay Clothing on its asap app did “well ahead of budgeted turnover”.
Standalone Pick n Pay Clothing stores grew turnover by nearly 4%, but like-for-like sales fell 0.7%. The company said the local clothing market “remains exceptionally challenged”.
Pick n Pay reached a deal with the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) the week before. The plan aims to lower labour costs and change workers’ terms.
Saccawu told News24 the deal cuts Sunday pay to 1.5 times the normal rate, down from double. It also brings new rosters for full-time staff. Summers said the group would keep the details private for competitive reasons.
Protea Capital Management CEO Jean Pierre Verster said the store sales growth suggested the “ship is slowly turning” for Pick n Pay. “I think this was a decent performance in a very difficult operating environment,” he said.
Anchor Capital investment analyst Steph Erasmus said he did not believe the business had “turned yet”. He said the value of the labour deal would become clear in the 2028 financial year.
Verster said the Pick n Pay business still appeared on course to break even in the 2029 financial year. New CEO Spencer Sonn joins as CEO-designate in February and takes over when Summers steps down in May 2028.
The share price first rose 5% after the results on Monday morning and settled about 3% higher by lunchtime. The shares are still down almost 30% over the past year.
Source: this article is based on reporting by News24. Image: News24. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.