Many South Africans had to say goodbye to their local Pick n Pay store as the retailer continued to close company-owned and franchise stores across the country.

On 4 February 2025, Pick n Pay released a trading update for the 45 weeks that ended 5 January 2025.

The results showed that Pick n Pay stores in South Africa continued to struggle, with sales declining by 0.1% over the period.

Pick n Pay South Africa’s internal selling price inflation for the period was 2.4%. This shows that the retailer is moving backwards in the country.

The main reason for the decline in sales was that Pick n Pay South Africa closed net 32 supermarkets during the 45 weeks.

The store closures included 24 company-owned Pick n Pay supermarkets and eight franchise stores.

If the store closures were excluded from the numbers, Pick n Pay South Africa’s like-for-like sales increased by 1.9%.

Although this is still below the internal selling price inflation of 2.4%, it is much better than the slightly negative growth.

Pick n Pay highlighted that its like-for-like sales momentum in the last nineteen weeks of the reporting period improved to 3.0%.

This is encouraging and shows that Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers’ plan to close non-performing stores is showing promise.

The store closures formed part of the turnaround plan which Summers unveiled after he took the reins at the struggling retailer.

In early 2024, Pick n Pay announced it would close or convert 112 Pick n Pay stores across South Africa.

Summers explained their turnaround plan involved closing 35 underperforming Pick n Pay stores and converting 70 outlets to the Boxer brand.

They have identified many stores in critical condition due to factors like demographic changes or a problem with the shopping centre.

“These stores will be closed. We will close and get rid of the stores that have no future,” Summers said.

In every subsequent update, Pick n Pay announced a significant number of company-owned and franchise store closures.

Pick n Pay supermarket closures

In October 2024, Pick n Pay announced that it had closed 24 supermarkets, including 10 corporate stores and 14 franchise stores, over a 26-week period.

Two months earlier, the retailer said it closed 53 Pick n Pay stores across South Africa between 12 February 2024 and 25 August 2024. 

In many cases, Shoprite and Checkers outlets have taken over the retail space, which Pick n Pay vacated. This is unsurprising.

Shoprite and Checkers are rapidly expanding their retail footprint, while Pick n Pay is scaling back to strengthen its financial performance.

In December 2024, SA Corporate Real Estate announced it was replacing Pick n Pay supermarkets with Checkers and Shoprite stores in some of its properties.

SA Corporate is a JSE-listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with a diversified portfolio of quality industrial, retail and residential buildings.

The company owns over 150 properties across South Africa with a gross lettable area of over 1.4 million square meters.

SA Corporate’s retail portfolio includes Musgrave Centre, East Point Shopping Centre, Umlazi Mega City, Springfield Value Centre, and Bluff Towers.

“Our retail portfolio focuses on convenience-oriented shopping centres, with a tenant mix that emphasises defensive categories,” it said.

Pick n Pay is its biggest retail tenant and contributes 9.2% to SA Corporate’s rental contribution, much higher than Spar’s 3.8%, Woolworths’ 3.2%, and Shoprite Checkers’ 3.1%.

In its 2024 year-end pre-close update presentation, SA Corporate shared a strategic leasing update for its retail space.

It announced that the Pick n Pay supermarket in Montana Crossing will be replaced with Checkers Emporium in Q3 2025.

The Checkers emporium will include Checkers Fresh-X, Pet Science, Checkers Liquor and Checkers Outdoor.

It will also replace the Pick n Pay QualiSave in the Springfield Value Centre with a Shoprite store in the second quarter of 2025.

Pick n Pay’s big blunder

Pick ‘n Pay CEO Sean Summers said converting traditional Pick n Pay stores to QualiSave outlets was a blunder which was “absolutely nuts”.

Pick n Pay launched its QualiSave initiative in August 2022 and planned to convert 40% of Pick n Pay company-owned supermarkets to Pick n Pay QualiSave.

While Pick n Pay told investors in 2022 that Pick n Pay QualiSave was a hit, Summers revealed it was an unmitigated disaster.

He explained Pick n Pay always had a presence in lower-income areas and that the QualiSave project made them take their eye off the ball.

“Unfortunately, the focus was taken off the Pick n Pay stores. We had this really, really poor thought about QualiSave being able to compete in those marketplaces,” he said.

“People were highly offended, and I don’t blame them. The markets and those population groups absolutely want their Pick n Pay.”

He gave the example of Sam Ntuli Mall in Katlehong, which had a Pick n Pay QualiSave store on one end, a Boxer in the middle, and a Shoprite on the other end.

“The Pick n Pay QualiSave store is trying to sell the same products as what the Boxer is selling. It is nuts, just absolutely nuts,” he said.

He said Pick n Pay’s Ekuseni and Qualisave plans were an example of a poor strategy which was well executed.

After Summers took the reins from former CEO Pieter Boone, the retailer started converting Qualisave stores back to Pick n Pay stores and rebranding others to Boxer stores.

Summers said the current situation with two retail brands – Pick n Pay and Boxer – is far more sustainable and logical.

He said the stores serve different needs and can thrive alongside each other in shopping malls and across South Africa.