Pick n Pay’s sales grew 11.5% in the 26 weeks to August 28, 2022, with like-for-like sales growth of 7.4%.
The comparative base of the first half of its 2022 financial year was severely disrupted by the July 2021 civil unrest and the loss of 55 days of liquor trading due to Covid-19 trading restrictions, the grocer said in a trading update on Monday.
Excluding these impacts, normalised sales growth for the period was estimated at 8.2%.
Internal selling price inflation was 7.2%, reflecting a sharp uptick over July and August, compared to 5% in the first 18 weeks of the period.
“This is further evidenced by the rise in Food CPI (inflation) from 8.6% in June to 11.3% in August according to Statistics SA. We reiterate our commitment to low-price investment and collaboration with suppliers to limit price increases,” the group said.
Sales growth was mainly driven by a strong performance from Boxer. Year-on-year sales growth from the Pick n Pay supermarkets upgraded to the new customer value propositions had been “encouraging”, but they did not yet constitute a substantial enough proportion to meaningfully impact the overall performance of the Pick n Pay brand.
The new Pick n Pay food and grocery offer delivered by Mr D had been successfully launched in a limited number of stores and would be rolled out rapidly across the country.
There had been progress in plans to create a single, modernised head office, and to drive productivity and efficiency gains in its cost base.
In a pro forma metric, which excludes R145.2 million business interruption insurance proceeds, and non-cash hyperinflation gains and losses of the TM business in Zimbabwe, headline earnings per share were expected to increase by 20%-30% to between 85.01c and 92.10c per share. The results are expected to be released on October 18.
BUSINESS REPORT