Trade Intelligence’s Corporate Retail Comparative Report (CRCR) offers a detailed analysis of the comparative performance of South Africa’s six major FMCG retail companies – Shoprite Holdings, The SPAR Group, Pick n Pay Stores, Woolworths Holdings, Clicks Group, and Dis-Chem Pharmacies. This report equips FMCG supplier managers and executives with the insights needed to craft commercially sound business plans, informed by the latest dynamics shaping corporate retail in South Africa.

This second edition for 2024 covers the reporting period of the first half of 2024 (HY2024) and is based on financial indicators published by the end of June 2024. Here are the key trends:

• Behind Turnover Growth: Very Little Real Growth

While turnover growth appears good, when we strip out the growth attributed to price inflation and new stores, real volume growth is flat. Shoprite, Boxer, and Clicks stand out as the retailers showing real growth in this period, albeit very little.
This flat market is not only putting profit under pressure but driving store footprint expansion and channel diversification in attempts to find pockets of growth and win market share from competitors.

• Profit Under Pressure

Gross margins have reached a four-year low, averaging 21.4% across corporate retailers. As a response, investments in IT, supply chain efficiencies, and private brand expansions are becoming critical strategies.

• Store Footprint Expansion

In HY2024 alone, 378 net new stores were added, focusing on higher-margin, smaller formats like forecourts and pharmacies. This focus on store footprint expansion is in pursuit of pockets of growth and in a bid to win market share from competitors.

• Intensified Competition for High-Income Shoppers

Checkers continues to outperform Woolworths Food, with its average turnover per store now 2.6 times higher than Woolworths’. As competition for the high-income shopper intensifies, suppliers need sharper, more tailored business plans to support their retail customers' ambitions in this premium segment.

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The Corporate Retail Comparative Report is a strategic tool that FMCG suppliers can rely on to inform trade investment decisions and align their growth and operational plans with corporate retailers’ growth agendas.

Updated bi-annually, it delivers the actionable insights needed for targeted trade investments and smart business planning.

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