Decide n Pay printed a buying and selling and earnings replace, with the group at the moment finalising its monetary outcomes for the 52 weeks ended 28 February 2021.
The retail group mentioned that it was proud of its monetary efficiency in a ‘troublesome yr’, delivering turnover progress of 4.3% over the interval.
It talked up its gross sales efficiency within the core meals and grocery supply in South Africa, accelerating progress from 9.9% (7.6% like-for-like) within the first half of the yr to 10.1% (9.3% like-for-like) within the second half.
Nevertheless, it famous that gross sales of sure gadgets, notably tobacco and alcohol, took a critical blow as a result of authorities’s lockdown restrictions.
“Group turnover progress of 4.3% (3.1% like-for-like) was considerably impacted by the prohibitions on the sale of alcohol and different merchandise for important components of the buying and selling yr, which resulted in an estimated R4 billion in misplaced gross sales,” it mentioned.
Decide n Pay mentioned that it misplaced 209 liquor buying and selling days over the monetary yr – 126 days within the first half and 83 days within the second – with diminished buying and selling hours for all however three weeks of the monetary yr.
This comes after the sale of cigarettes and different tobacco merchandise was prohibited between 27 March and 17 August.
These measures collectively had a profound impression on liquor and tobacco gross sales in South Africa, with unfavourable progress of 31% over the yr, it mentioned.
It added that Covid-19 buying and selling restrictions disproportionately affected higher-margin classes, together with:
- Liquor;
- Clothes;
- Basic merchandise;
- Scorching meals;
- Deli merchandise;
- Bakery merchandise.
“Though this had a unfavourable impression on whole gross revenue margin, the group expects this to have been offset via enhancements in its business and provide chain operations,” it mentioned.
“Gross sales have been additionally impacted by diminished buying and selling hours, limits on the variety of prospects in shops to uphold bodily distancing necessities, and by some non permanent retailer closures following the identification of constructive Covid-19 circumstances amongst employees.”
Decide n Pay mentioned that its working bills may even replicate R200 million prices immediately associated to the Group’s Covid-19 operational response: R150 million within the first half of the yr, and an extra R50 million within the second half.
Further security and hygiene measures price R130 million; a R50 million appreciation bonus was paid to front-line employees within the first half of the yr; and safety and communication prices added an extra R20 million, it mentioned.
Decide n Pay’s full outcomes will probably be printed on 21 April 2021.
Learn: New analysis highlights main flaws in South Africa’s lockdown alcohol bans