Shoprite Group’s Checkers Sixty60 online shopping platform continues its impressive growth, reporting a remarkable 63.1% year-on-year increase in sales for the six months ending on December 31, 2023.
The retail giant highlighted that Sixty60 has been instrumental in maintaining the group’s consistent market share gains in its South African supermarkets business for an extended period of 58 months.
Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht mentioned that Checkers and Checkers Hyper’s 13.7% sales increase mostly came from the brand’s clear value proposition, ongoing store upgrades, and advancements in fresh, private label, and on-demand services facilitated by Checkers Sixty60. Despite already significant growth in previous years, Sixty60 managed to boost sales by an additional 63.1% over the six-month period.
While still impressive, the latest growth rate represents a slight deceleration compared to the previous year, where Sixty60 achieved an 86.8% increase in sales during the same period. Checkers expanded the number of stores facilitating Sixty60 deliveries from 394 to 505.
Shoprite reported a 15.4% year-on-year increase in group inventories, reaching R29.3 billion in the latest reporting period. This was influenced by the elevated level of sales growth, particularly through Checkers Sixty60, which relies on in-store inventories, as well as an expanded store footprint.
Shoprite’s half-year profit rose by 7.6%, attributed to a successful Black Friday and festive season. Diluted headline earnings per share stood at 621.4c for the 26 weeks ending December 31, compared to 577.5c in the previous year.
