Clicks shareholders cheered a dividend windfall with the company’s share price surging nearly 10% in early morning trade on Thursday.
The company, which has more than 800 stores and 650 pharmacies, upped its full-year dividend by 30%. It said 2022 group turnover increased 6% to R39.6-billion.
The company also plans capital investment of R36-million, which will include investment on new stores and pharmacies, as well as the refurbishment of 60 stores. Clicks said it had administered 2.9-million Covid-19 vaccinations, which generated a turnover of R1.1-billion.
The Clicks ClubCard active membership base increased by over 500 000 to 9.7-million members and accounted for 80.2% of sales in the year under review, while its mobile app has been downloaded by 3-million customers.
Clicks CEO Bertina Engelbrecht said retail trading was hampered by the impact of the civil unrest in July 2021 and that the company expects trading conditions to remain extremely constrained owing to rising pressures on consumers’ disposable income in the current low-growth, high-inflationary environment.
“Clicks has proven its ability to adapt to changing market dynamics. Our main growth drivers are value, convenience, customer loyalty and product differentiation, and this positions the business to respond to the needs of customers, particularly in the current weak economic environment,” said Engelbrecht.
“The group is planning record capital investment of R936-million for the new financial year. This includes R477-million for stores and pharmacies and R459-million for supply chain, technology and infrastructure.”
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