Shoprite’s interims a fitting sendoff for Whitey Basson
Retailer says the drought and its effect on agricultural production, along with the high replacement cost of basic food imports, pushed up internal inflation
Whitey Basson ended his run as Shoprite CEO on a high note, the grocery chain’s interim results released on Tuesday morning showed. Commentary in the results for the six months to December 31 was given by Pieter Engelbrecht who replaced Basson on January 1. Shoprite reported its overall sales for the six months grew 14% to R71.3bn, but aftertax profit grew a more moderate 11% to R2.4bn. It raised its interim dividend by 15% to R1.80 from R1.56. Under Basson, Shoprite was the South African retailer to expand most aggressively into the rest of the continent. Sales outside of SA now account for 20% of the group’s total, and grew 32% to R14bn while its domestic sales grew 10% to R57bn during the reporting period. The rand strengthening against the dollar and various African currencies was bad news for Shoprite, leading to a R188m foreign exchange loss from a R11m foreign exchange profit in the matching period. "Supermarkets non-RSA, which trades in 14 countries in the rest of Africa and...
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