Ackerman family’s Pick n Pay cuts first-half loss to $31m

Pick n Pay Stores Ltd., the South African grocer built by the Ackerman family, cut the loss at its main supermarket business by 16.9% in the first half of its financial year as its Boxer discount chain kept growing and a turnaround plan began to show results.

The Pick n Pay supermarket division posted a trading loss of R516 million ($31 million) in the 26 weeks to Aug. 30, down from R621 million a year earlier, the Cape Town-based company said on Monday. Group turnover rose 2.4% to R60.5 billion ($3.65 billion), and group trading profit increased 58% to R490 million ($30 million).

The group’s headline loss, the main measure of profit in South Africa, narrowed 31.9% to R299 million ($18 million), or 40.71 cents a share, from R439 million. The gross profit margin widened by 0.7 percentage points to 18.8%. The shares rose 4.3% to R22 in Johannesburg trading on Monday.

“We have put the fundamentals in place, and they are delivering, despite the constrained trading environment,” Chief Executive Officer Sean Summers said in the statement. “Our foundations are stronger, and our hard work is delivering, despite a tough market, but there is still much to do.”

Boxer carries the group

Boxer, the low-price chain that Pick n Pay listed separately in Johannesburg in November 2024, grew turnover by 6.3%, and its trading profit rose 8.1% to R1 billion ($60 million). The chain opened its 600th store during the period. Pick n Pay owns 53.1% of Boxer after selling about 57.3 million shares for roughly R4.7 billion in May to help pay for its turnaround.

Turnover at the Pick n Pay supermarket business was broadly flat, held back by the closure of underperforming stores over the past year. Sales at company-owned supermarkets in South Africa that were open in both periods rose 2.4%, ahead of internal price inflation of 1.5%. Online sales jumped 35.4%.

Summers said the conflict in the Middle East cut sales growth by about 3%, and that every percentage point of lost sales growth costs the business roughly R140 million to R150 million in income. Food inflation in South Africa is at a 16-year low, which has also limited sales growth.

A new staffing model for stores takes effect on Nov. 1, after the company reached an agreement with the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union last week. Management is aiming for the Pick n Pay supermarket business to break even at the trading profit level, after lease interest, in the financial year to February 2029.

Betting on rugby

Summers also credited the company’s sponsorship of the Springboks, South Africa’s world champion rugby team, with drawing shoppers back to its stores. Pick n Pay signed the deal with SA Rugby last year, and its logo appears on the national team’s jersey. The sponsorship also covers women’s and school rugby.

“Around every braai on a weekend, the whole debate was: ‘Is Pick n Pay going to make it? Is Pick n Pay going to survive?'” Summers told reporters on Monday, using the South African word for a barbecue. He called the sponsorship a “leap of faith” that “has turned out to be a prudent one.”

The company is running a second edition of its Collectaboks promotion, which gives shoppers packs of Springbok trading cards when they spend R500 or more. The 67-card set runs until Dec. 6 and includes Springbok Women players for the first time. “It’s nuts what’s going on in the stores,” Summers said.

The Ackerman legacy

Raymond Ackerman bought four Pick n Pay stores in Cape Town in 1967 and built the chain into one of South Africa’s biggest retailers. His family ran it for more than half a century, but gave up control in 2024 after years of lost market share to rivals such as Shoprite Holdings Ltd. forced the company to raise new capital. The family cut its stake to about 16.8% in November 2025.

Summers, who led Pick n Pay in the 1990s, returned as chief executive in 2023 to lead the recovery. He will hand over to Spencer Sonn, a Woolworths Holdings Ltd. executive who joins as CEO-designate in February and takes over in May 2028.