52\u00a0weeks for the year ended 29th June 2025<\/a>. If the numbers are anything to go by, this is going to be a very interesting conversation.<\/p>\nRevenue figures topped the R250 billion mark. Alongside this, more than R16 billion in savings was returned to customers.<\/p>\n
The 500th<\/sup>\u00a0Usave store opened in South Africa alone. Those are just some of the figures that we\u2019re going to get into with the chief executive officer of the Shoprite Group, Pieter Engelbrecht.<\/p>\nHe joins me now to take a look at the performance of the business and see what we make of it. Oom Peter, always lovely catching up\u2026 It seems every time we have this conversation, there\u2019s always something new and there\u2019s always something that surprises me in the numbers.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with your thoughts around the performance of the business over the last year, and then we\u2019ll get into some of those numbers that I found quite surprising.<\/p>\n
PIETER ENGELBRECHT:\u00a0<\/strong>Okay, Jimmy, thanks a lot. The summary of it is 8.9% sales growth for the group. Of course, RSA supermarkets did much better at 9.5%. So top-line growth at a very, very low inflation \u2013 we must not forget that. Inflation came down to as low as 1.9%. One must be careful when you compare percentages, because a little more than a year ago, inflation was at 13%. Then, of course, you report maybe numbers in the twenties.<\/p>\nSo, if you look at the number of 9% sales growth, you say, \u2018Oh, are they slowing down or what?\u2019 That\u2019s not the case. We must always remember that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Then if we go to the second line, which I\u2019m very proud of, it\u2019s the fact that gross profit has grown by 10.6%. We\u2019ve increased our percentage by 40 bps [basis points], yet remain the cheapest supermarket in South Africa, giving the best value.<\/p>\n
You mentioned the number of R16.5 billion to consumers in savings at till point. And then, we jump to the bottom line, 16.6% growth in trading profit in the macro environment where we are. I don\u2019t have to explain that to you. I think it summarises an outstanding performance from Team Shoprite, of which I\u2019m very proud.<\/p>\n
JIMMY MOYAHA:\u00a0<\/strong>Following our last conversation, Oom Pieter, we\u2019ve spoken about the fact that Shoprite is ticking along as a global grocery retailer at this point \u2013 with the margins, with the numbers, with the metrics. By every standard, we are no longer comparing Shoprite to some of the local grocery companies you compete with, even though that is still primarily the landscape that you compete with. But at least when I look at the volumes of the amount of goods that the Shoprite business has been able to move in the past year, the numbers suggest that you are one of the best retailers in the world, not just in South Africa.<\/p>\nNow that\u2019s a very telling statistic, especially if we think about the global landscape that we find ourselves in. How is Shoprite able to stay this competitive and this ahead of the game?<\/p>\n
PIETER ENGELBRECHT:\u00a0<\/strong>Right. Number one, we are absolutely customer-obsessed. I know all companies say, \u2018customer focused, customer focused\u2019, but we really live and breathe it.<\/p>\nI\u2019ll give you one example. We\u2019ve got the policy here that the sun doesn\u2019t set on a customer complaint. What do we mean by that? Every single customer complaint that we get in a day is resolved on the same day. We don\u2019t go to bed before it gets done. That\u2019s why I can say we are really customer-obsessed.<\/p>\n
With that comes the innovation that is needed for us to bring consumers value so that they can improve their lives.<\/p>\n
This journey started a couple of years ago. We separated the brands very clearly [of] Shoprite and Checkers, and then we started to invest behind that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
From a technical or technological point of view, we have laid the foundation of the 51风流system that gave us line-item profitability and gave us a real view of stock across the supply chain. And then, we started investing in things like price-optimisation tools, personalisation tools, Rainmaker Media, a lot of digital AI data scientists. They started to write algorithms for us, to understand things better and make precise data-[based] decisions, not gut feeling \u2013 \u2018I feel like this\u2019.<\/p>\n
Maybe you\u2019ll like this example. We had a situation where one of the regions was losing pie sales. So what does the normal retailer instinct do, or tell you to do? It\u2019s to say, \u2018What about two for the price of one?\u2019 That\u2019s until we looked at the data and the data said no, people don\u2019t buy two pies. They usually buy a pie and a muffin. Oh, so you make a deal for a price \u2013 a pie and a muffin.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a simplistic way of explaining how you are making data-driven decisions compared to what you think and what your gut feel is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And those products and all those investments we\u2019ve made are starting to mature now. We\u2019re starting to see the return on investment from those. And we\u2019ve been investing quite a bit in capital. For the last three years almost every year we\u2019ve invested R8 billion in capital. Okay \u2013 a lot of that went into new stores as well, but a lot of that went into technology.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll give you another last example \u2013 I\u2019ll now be giving you two long-winded answers. But there are over 900 software upgrades on the Sixty60 platform in a year, meaning enhancements to make the experience better, faster, all those things. That alone tells you a story of what goes into the innovation part.<\/p>\n
JIMMY MOYAHA:\u00a0<\/strong>Oom Pieter, I want to take a look at the other side of the business around the expansion \u2013 opening a net 281 stores. We touched on the fact that one of those was the opening of the 500th<\/sup>\u00a0Usave store in South Africa. The business has been growing.<\/p>\nAlongside that, the business has been continuing to create jobs within that space, adding more than 8\u00a0700 jobs in this particular financial year.<\/p>\n
I saw something interesting that came out of the team at Just\u00a0Share around the average minimum wage that\u2019s being paid by Top\u00a040 companies. Now, Shoprite didn\u2019t rank highest on that list, but Shoprite does employ more than 150\u00a0000 individuals across the business. How do you sustain all of these employees, and how do you take the approach to looking after them the same way you look after your customers?<\/p>\n
PIETER ENGELBRECHT:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes, I do think that\u2019s a one-sided comparison. But it\u2019s not. It\u2019s the emotional argument and not one that you can win. So let\u2019s stick to the facts \u2013 Shoprite employees.<\/p>\nOn our payroll, we have 168 000 people. One must not forget that there are a lot of indirect jobs that are not accounted for here. I\u2019m talking about trolley collectors, merchandisers at store level, security personnel.<\/p>\n
If you add all of that, we\u2019re talking a number of probably closer to 230 000-odd people that Shoprite almost directly employs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We are extremely proud of the 8\u00a0700 direct jobs we\u2019ve created. Now, what is the thing about minimum wage and then the CEO\u2019s salary? Somewhere I have to start. The second question when you apply for a job that you get asked is \u2018What\u2019s the relevant experience?\u2019 Now, where am I going to get the relevant experience if there\u2019s no employment in the country? So we make a special effort to give people a chance. It\u2019s a starting point only, and you don\u2019t stay at that level where you start, the day you start right at the lowest level or at the minimum wage.<\/p>\n