Following a record 13 new supermarket openings across Africa in the last week of October – 10 in a single day – Africa’s number 1 retailer is on track with its expansion programme planned for the 2016 financial year. The Shoprite Group created more than 1600 new job opportunities in the process.

Of the 96 new Shoprite, Checkers, Checkers Hyper and Usave supermarkets confirmed to June 2016, almost a third (30) have already started trading in the first four months of the fiscal. During the same period the Group had also opened eleven furniture stores, two Hungry Lion fast food outlets, and 16 LiquorShops. By Christmas the number of new supermarkets since July 2015 will have risen to 50.

The Shoprite Group’s store opening programme is primarily geared at accommodating an expanding market linked to population growth. In South Africa the present rate is just over 1%.  Where possible, the Group positions new stores in areas not previously served by its supermarkets or in those showing strong population growth.

Outside of South Africa, the Group is increasingly growing into sub-Sahara Africa where it continues to strengthen its presence in key economies such as Angola and Nigeria where Shoprite will be celebrating its 10^thbirthday in December 2015.

Zambia is still one of the Shoprite Group’s largest businesses outside of South Africa and October saw the retailer celebrating 20 successful years in the country where it has also established the largest supermarket chain in the nation with 25 supermarkets apart from 16 Hungry Lion outlets and four OK Furniture stores.

By the end of the first six months of the fiscal, the Group plans to trade from 1152 supermarkets, 492 furniture stores, 183 Hungry Lion outlets and 315 LiquorShops.

According to the 2015 Deloitte African Powers of Retailing report, Shoprite Holdings was again named the number one retailer in Africa, a clear indication of the Group’s successful recipe to focus on low cost pricing and an expanding footprint in locations convenient to customers.