Shoprite and Massmart, South Africa’s two leading retailers, have reported strong sales growth for their fiscal first half and full year, respectively.

Shoprite said sales for the six months to end-December rose by 12.5% to 57.5bn rand, with like-for-like growth of 5.1%. Sales at its core South African supermarket unit grew by 12% in the period, helped by particularly strong sales in December.

Meanwhile, Walmart-owned Massmart saw its full-year sales grow by 10.4% to 78.2bn rand, with like-for-like sales up 7.5%. The group particularly noted a 14.6% jump in sales at its Massbuild unit,