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SA’s Pick n Pay wants to open 100 new stores in the next three years

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2024

Supermarket chain has been playing second fiddle to market leader Checkers, but believes it’s now back on the right track.

South Africa’s Pick n Pay supermarket and retail group, which has been struggling for some time to compete with rival Checkers, is planning to open 100 new stores within the next three years.

Pick n Pay Clothing has performed better than the group’s supermarkets

This is according to several local media reports quoting CEO Sean Summers, who has been leading a turnaround strategy for the business.

Once the darling of South African shoppers, it has since fallen on harder times. Despite this, it continues to be the second-largest grocery chain in the country.

More recently, Pick n Pay has been known for closing underperforming outlets rather than opening new ones, and reportedly closed 17 stores in the past few months.

But it seems that times are changing. “We’re on a journey; we’ve commenced. We’re in a profoundly different place to what we were in six months ago, never mind a year ago,” Summers is quoted as saying by Business Report.

“As part of an ongoing revitalisation effort, the company aims to refresh existing stores that have been ‘left behind” amid the competitive landscape of grocery retailing,” Business Report states. It further quotes Summers as saying the stores “need to be modernised and brought up to speed”.

Former CEO came back to lead turnaround

Summers was previously CEO of Pick n Pay between 1999 and 2007. He was reappointed in late 2023 when the incumbent, Pieter Boone, left suddenly after just two-and-a-half years in the role.

Among the bright spots for Pick n Pay amidst the challenges of its supermarket business, however, has been the performance of its mostly stand-alone Pick n Pay Clothing outlets.

According to a company press release, the retailer has added 32 new clothing stores to its network to date in 2024, with plans to open another 12 by the end of the year.

Many existing stores, such as at Rosebank and Mall of Africa in Johannesburg, as well as at Gateway in Durban, have also been revamped as part of its expansion strategy for the clothing business.

There are now 386 standalone corporate Pick n Pay Clothing stores. The value-based clothing retailer also has a presence in over 100 Pick n Pay supermarket stores.

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