Grocer Spar sees slower turnover growth as civil unrest, Covid-19 weigh

Source: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann

The grocery retailer said diluted headline earnings per share (Heps), the main profit measure in South Africa, edged up to 1,193.7 cents in the year ended 30 September, from 1,131.5 cents a year earlier.

The mixed performance across Southern Africa, Ireland, South West England, Poland and Switzerland helped deliver a group operating profit of R3.4bn, down 1.5% year-on-year, while group turnover growth came in at R127.9bn.

Spar Southern Africa contributed growth in wholesale turnover of 3.4%, with the core wholesale food business sales declining 0.4% against a high base of 2020 when demand for home-cooking during the height of the pandemic soared.

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Impact of civil unrest

The impact of the civil unrest and subsequent closure of many stores due to looting and arson attacks impacted the business during the fourth quarter.

The estimated wholesale turnover loss is R638.4m across Spar's core grocery, liquor and build-it businesses, about 0.8% of turnover.

BWG Foods - the group's Ireland and South West England majority-owned business - delivered turnover growth of 3.5% in euro terms, while Spar Switzerland reported a 5.6% increase in turnover in Swiss francs.

The new Polish business saw sales growth of 16.2%.