Shoprite, Africa’s biggest grocer, is ramping up its expansion across the continent with 44 new outlets in Nigeria and 21 in Angola in the next three to four years as its core South African consumer base grapples with high personal debt levels and growing fuel and transport costs.
The Chief Executive, Shoprite, Mr. Whitey Basson, was quoted in a Bloomberg report on Tuesday to have said the company saw scope for the new outlets in oil-rich Nigeria and Angola in the next three to four years.
Cape Town-based Shoprite, which reported an 11 per cent rise in full-year profit that fell slightly short of market expectations, said it could double its stores outside of South Africa in the next four years.
Shoprite has 153 supermarkets in 16 countries outside South Africa. Those foreign outlets registered a 28 per cent jump in sales in the 12 months to the end of June, nearly three times the rate of growth in its home market during the same period.
Source: Punch
