'Priced for perfection.' Shoprite shares slump despite profit jump, large market gains

Shoprite's fresh food business may be making serious inroads at the top end of the market, with SA's largest retailer reporting on Tuesday that just under 30% of its total R8.1 billion full-year market share gains came from this segment.

CEO Pieter Engelbrecht told News24 that the group's fresh fruit and vegetables category by itself now had the highest market share in the history of the company.

Although Shoprite does not disclose this specific category's data, this would suggest that affluent customers are flocking to the group's upmarket Checkers Fresh X stores, as well as the brand's other formats. These include 1 000m² Checkers Food stores in SA's neighbourhoods as well as 8 500m² Checkers Hypers.