GAZETTE REPORTER
In the full year that ended 30 June 2022, retail sales at Botswana’s leading supermarket in Choppies Group increased by 13.3 percent to P6 042 million (2021: P 5 331 million), this publication can reveal.
According to Choppies in its financial results for the period under review, the increament on the sales was driven by seven new stores coupled with strong volume and price growth in the Rest of Africa.
The report continues to show that inspite of the challenging trading conditions, Botswana continued to show a modest sales growth.“Sales from Botswana increased by 1.5 percent as the business continued to show strong resilience in an increasingly challenging economic environment,” reads the report. “The Botswana economy experienced elevated inflation, high unemployment, and lower economic growth.”
In the rest of Africa segment (Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe), Choppies experienced a significant improvement in EBIT moving into profitability of P88 million from last year’s EBIT loss of P21 million. “EBITDA grew by 275.7 percent and adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the foreign exchange gain and losses on lease liabilities and Zimbabwean legacy debt receipts, increased by 77.2 percent,” shows the results. “Sales increased by 54.6 percent driven by five new stores, inflation and volume growth.”
Additionally, the results show that the Group’s negative equity reduced by P107 million from P448 million to P341 million mainly due to trading profits. The Group’s inventory grew 35.2 percent reflecting the higher costs of goods due to inflation and increased inventory buys over the past quarter to address global supply chain constraints.
Furthermore, Choppies noted in the results that it continues to manage its cash resources and liquidity prudently with a reduction of P62 million in net debt over the past 12 months. Net cash generated at Choppies in the period under review was P458 million, up 23.8 percent from last year’s P378 million whereas capital expenditure increased to P115 million (2021 P60 million) as the Group invested in new stores and maintained its distribution fleet.