Shoprite Holdings Limited a South African retailer has listed its Nigerian operations as discontinued in a trading update released today.
Shoprite said that:
“Following approaches from various potential investors, and in line with our re-evaluation of the Group’s operating model in Nigeria, the Board has decided to initiate a formal process to consider the potential sale of all, or a majority stake, in Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Shoprite International Limited. As such, Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited may be classified as a discontinued operation when Shoprite reports its results for the year. Any further updates will be provided to the market at the appropriate time.”
The retailer said given the aforementioned comment regarding the pending classification of Nigeria as a discontinued operation, Supermarkets Non-RSA (excluding Nigeria) contributing 11.6 percent to Group sales, recorded a decline in sales of 1.4 percent
for the year.
Shoprite said despite difficult circumstances, in a year incorporating the COVID-19 lockdown and accompanying regulations governing trade, transport and operations, the Group increased total sale of merchandise for the 52 weeks to 28 June 2020 (including the impact of hyperinflation in the prior year) by 6.4 percent to approximately R156.9 billion.
Like-for-like growth for the year was 4.4 percent.
Shoprite said Supermarkets RSA’s sales growth (inclusive of liquor) of 8.7 percent for the year was underpinned by a strong second half, in which sales grew 7.5 percent, notwithstanding a high second half base in the prior year during which fourth quarter sales grew by 9.4 percent.
As a result of lockdown, customer visits for the year declined by 7.4 percent, however, average basket spend increased by 18.4 percent.