Black Friday, holiday sales spur demand at S.Africa's Shoprite

Shoprite (SHPJ.J), South Africa's biggest supermarket group, reported on Tuesday a nearly 14% jump in its half-year sales, supported by a record Black Friday and festive season as cash-strapped shoppers and upmarket consumers went after food deals.

The retailer, with more than 2,900 stores across Africa, said group sales for the six-month period ended Dec. 31 rose to 121.1 billion rand ($6.44 billion). Sales in the company's second quarter, which include November and the Christmas holiday period, rose 14.6%.

Shoprite (SHPJ.J), South Africa's biggest supermarket group, reported on Tuesday a nearly 14% jump in its half-year sales, supported by a record Black Friday and festive season as cash-strapped shoppers and upmarket consumers went after food deals.

The retailer, with more than 2,900 stores across Africa, said group sales for the six-month period ended Dec. 31 rose to 121.1 billion rand ($6.44 billion). Sales in the company's second quarter, which include November and the Christmas holiday period, rose 14.6%.

The group's core business, Supermarkets South Africa, which contributes about 80.5% to the topline, witnessed a 14.6% jump in sales, also benefiting from the acquisition of 94 stores bought from Walmart-owned Massmart. Like-for-like sales climbed 6.3%.

Sales in rest of its stores in Africa rose 6.2% in South African rand terms and by 20% in constant currency.

Like its peers, Shoprite is grappling with severe rolling power cuts, forcing it to crank up diesel generators and spend more on back-up power supplies, adding to soaring costs for raw materials, transport and packaging.

The power outages resulted in diesel expenses of 500 million rand in the reported period.

($1 = 18.7998 rand)

Article and image originally appeared on Reuters