Ramaphosa’s investment drive helps retail sales, says Spar CEO
Grocery group's Graham O’Connor says performance has firmed up since its financial year ended in September
The CEO of SA’s second largest grocer by turnover says it is already seeing the positive effect of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investment drive, with sales rising after its latest set of results. Spar Group CEO Graham O’Connor said the government’s effort to foster an environment that’s friendlier to business is a move in the right direction and should be supported. “Government is listening to business.” Since becoming president earlier in 2018, Ramaphosa has made it his priority to turn around the struggling economy by getting local and foreign businesses to commit to investing billions of rand in it. O’Connor said these efforts were starting to pay off, as the move had triggered a change in sentiment, with sales firming up since the end of its financial year in September. “They actually got better after that.” Overall turnover rose 6% to R103bn and operating profit jumped 7.9% to R2.78bn for the period. The group has operations in Ireland and Switzerland, but the performance of it...
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