Pick n Pay shares slumped by as much as 14% on Tuesday morning as the retailer warned of a larger-than-expected loss for the 52 weeks to 1 March as the turnaround of its core company-owned supermarkets in South Africa stalled towards the end of calendar 2025.
This announcement was made after the market closed on Monday. It expects its annual loss to widen by more than 20% which it admits is a “disappointment”. Previously, it had guided that its trading loss would be “broadly in line” with that of its previous financial year.
It expects the loss to widen by more than 20% which it admits is a “disappointment”. Previously, it had guided that its trading loss would be “broadly in line” with that of its previous financial year.
It says trading since September was “below expectation and the result of a highly constrained market, particularly over the extended Black Friday period”.
Excluding the impact of shuttered or converted stores, sales momentum “showed moderate growth in September and October 2025, a … decline in November 2025, followed by a return to growth in December 2025, and a further improvement in January 2026”.
| Pick n Pay SA supermarkets’ sales growth | Company-owned (like-for-like) | Franchise (like-for-like) |
| H2 FY24 | -0.5% | -0.3% |
| H1 FY25 | 3.1% | -1.4% |
| 19 weeks to 5 Jan 25 | 4.1% | 0.7% |
| H1 FY26 | 4.8% | 1.7% |
| 22 weeks to 1 Feb 26 | 2.2% | -0.6% |
Its franchise supermarket division, which has lagged its supermarkets, slumped back into a sales decline (-0.6%) in that same period. In the first half, it had reported an acceleration of growth to 1.7%.
The group emphasises that “the Pick n Pay segment’s trading profit recovery will not be linear”.
This stands in contrast to the ‘momentum’ story it has been selling to the market to date.
Overall, given the “now largely completed, planned closure or conversion of underperforming company-owned supermarkets”, sales at Pick n Pay South Africa declined by 3.2% in the 22 weeks, with a 1.4% decline for the financial year to date.
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It had originally planned to close or convert (to Boxer or franchise) around 100 supermarkets. Still, following the return to profit of 27 stores, this number is now 74, of which 65 will be converted or shut by the end of February.
Read: Pick n Pay again fails to avoid liability for shopper’s injuries
Its Pick n Pay Clothing business, which has been a growth driver and outperformer for years, saw like-for-like sales contract by 6.8% in the 22 weeks (versus 7.5% growth in H1), which equates to a broadly flat year-to-date (0.4% up).
The figure looks a lot better when adding in new stores (up 4.9% for the year-to-date), but it warns that “the clothing market was exceptionally challenging over the last few months of the period”. In January, like-for-like sales growth in Clothing recovered to mid-single digits.
It notes “PnP Clothing’s strong base over multiple years versus peers, with PnP Clothing like-for-like growth of 10.7% and 3.8% delivered for H2 FY24 and H2 FY25, respectively”.
Last week, Boxer also reported muted sales growth for the 22-week period. It said overall sales were up 9.8% (versus 13.9% in H1), while like-for-like sales were up just 2.4% (versus 5.3% in H1).
In contrast with parent Pick n Pay, it saw “strong” trading in September and October, “a soft November, and steady improvement in December and January 2026.
The November performance was the result of a constrained trading environment over the extended Black Friday period, together with a high November 2024 base”.
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That base in 2024 for all retailers was boosted by withdrawals from the two-pot retirement system, which came into effect in September that year.
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Pick n Pay says this overall setback in the business was primarily due to “a soft November, which reflects general market conditions as reported elsewhere”.
Rival Shoprite Group did not provide detail in its update for the second six months of the year and, while not strictly directly comparable (its H2 runs from July to December), it said its Supermarkets RSA business achieved sales growth of 7.1% over the period.
This was driven by Checkers (up 8.9%), with Shoprite and Usave reporting more muted growth of 5.1%.
Read: Shoprite defies market slowdown with R136.8bn sales surge
Pick n Pay highlights “the substantial on-the-ground operational improvements that have been achieved to date”.
Still, this needs to translate into more people shopping at the retailer more often, which will deliver the turnaround to profitability, which, given these numbers, may take a while yet …
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