Shoprite Holdings Limited, which is a South African company, has released a statement that they will be exiting Nigeria after almost 15-years.
Shoprite Holdings Limited which has stores across the country and in most of the countries in Africa, making them Africa’s largest grocery retailer, said they are selling off the majority of their shares in Africa’s biggest market, Nigeria. This decision they said was due to the coronavirus pandemic which has disrupted major businesses globally.
According to the report by news24, Shoprite Holdings Limited which is a Cape Town-based retailer, made the announcement to kick start the formal process of selling off all or a majority stake in its supermarkets in Nigeria, in a trading statement for the 52 weeks to end June released on Monday.
The report said, that Shoprite Holdings Limited has struggled in the Nigeria market and most recently Mr Price has exited the market after Woolworths did the same six years ago.
In the statement, Shoprite said the results for the year do not reflect any of their operations is Nigeria as it will be classified as a discontinued operation.
International supermarkets (excluding Nigeria) contributed 11.6% to group sales and reported a 1.4% decline in sales from 2018. South African operations contributed 78% of overall sales and saw an 8.7% rise for the year.
As a result of lockdown, customer visits declined 7.4% but the average basket spends increased by 18.4%.