Checkers Sixty60 is crushing it in South Africa – BusinessTech

The Shoprite Group has again seen a strong performance from its on-demand digital platform Sixty60.

Speaking in the group’s interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2026, Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said that the group increased sales of merchandise from continuing operations by 7.2% to approximately R136.8 billion.

This equates to an additional R9.2 billion in incremental sales versus the comparative interim period, with R9.7 billion in Xtra Savings for customers.

In its core Supermarkets RSA segment, Shoprite and Usave increased sales by 5.1%, while recording deflation of 0.1% and 0.7% in selling prices, respectively.

Checkers and Checkers Hyper increased sales by 8.9%. , with internal selling price inflation of 1.9%
and 1.1% respectively

Engelbrecht said this illustrates growth in both customer numbers and product volume.

Checkers Sixty60, the on-demand digital platform, continued to drive sales growth and customer adoption, evidenced by sales increasing by 34.6% to R11.9 billion over the six months.

The on-demand delivery platform is now available from 875 stores nationwide.

Whilst small to the overall group, Engelbrecht added that its adjacent businesses, which include Petshop Science, Uniq Clothing by Checkers, Checkers Outdoor and Little Me, increased sales by 70.9%

He said this broadened the group’s overall value proposition and increased its share of wallet.

Petshop Science also saw strong growth, aided by the transition to the Sixty60 delivery platform.

Outside of South Africa, Supermarkets Non-RSA delivered 12.1% sales growth; however, constant-currency sales growth was 9.5%.

However, Engelbrecht acknowledged that the profitability of the Non-RSA business remains challenging and was severely impacted by adverse conditions in Mozambique.

“We continue to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation as well as portfolio focus and
following the recent classification of our operations in Ghana and Malawi as discontinued operations,” he said.

“Our scope of operations on the continent now numbers seven countries, all situated relatively close to our South African home base.”

Financials

Reflecting on the group’s sales growth, the CEO said that dividend growth is commendable given little to no selling price inflation, deflation, and rising costs.

He said that the Supermarkets RSA segment is trading at 2.3 times the rest of the market, with this outperformance rising to 5.3 times the rest of the market in Black Friday and December.

The group’s total earnings and those from continuing operations did show large differences.

The group’s earnings per share from continuing operations increased by 4.5% to 697.1 cents per share.

Earnings per share, including discontinued operations, remained flat at 685 cents per share for the period.

The group’s headline earnings per share from continuing operations grew 7.7% to 710.5 cents per share.

Headline earnings per share, including discontinued operations, increased 5.9% to 719.4 cents per share.

The group restated its operations in Ghana and Malawi, and the furniture business in Angola and Mozambique, as discontinued operations in accordance with IFRS accounting standards.

The board declared an interim dividend of 307 cents per share, representing year-on-year dividend per share growth of 7.7%