Massmart Targets 50% Growth 13 New African Stores

August 28, 2014 Mzwandile Jacks Business, Retail & Manufacturing, Strategies & Solutions

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VENTURES AFRICA – JSE-listed retailer Massmart, a unit of the world’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, on Thursday said it is poised to open 13 new stores in Africa as the continent continues to be a priority for the firm.
Massmart said the 13 new stores will represent African space growth of about 50 percent.
“We continue to expand and improve our ecommerce offerings and are gaining invaluable insights from our colleagues in Asda and Wal-Mart eCommerce,” Massmart said.
“Finally, we will focus on selectively owning more of our current and future stores, will rationalise stores in certain over-traded markets and will continue to invest in
product quality and safety,” it said on Thursday.
It said sales for the 34 weeks to 24 August this year surged 10 percent while comparable sales gained 7.1 percent. These sales trends will continue for the remainder of this year and that the company remained focused on offering value and innovations to its customers.
The company made these comments as it released results for the six months to June this year with a gross profit of 18.64 percent.
It said was attributable to a combination of an increased Africa contribution and improved gross margins in Massbuild and Masscash.
During the period under review, 13 stores were opened and eight stores were closed, resulting in a total of 381 stores at June 2014.