The true cost of ongoing power cuts by Eskom has been laid bare, after Shoprite revealed that it spends a mammoth R100-million on diesel every month to keep the lights on at its stores across the country.
“While, as a result of our solar and generator investment programme, our supermarket business has been fortunate to trade seamlessly and continues to meet the needs of our customers during loadshedding, at loadshedding stages five and six, it comes at a significant cost,” the company said in a trading statement on Monday.
“We estimate in these scenarios [that] our additional monthly spend on diesel amounts to R100-million per month.”
With the company continuing with its expansion programme, the diesel cost to keep trading when loadshedding is implemented is set to increase even further.
The company said it opened 70 stores during the first quarter and plans to open a further 107 stores during the second quarter. “As a result, we are on track to meet our group target of 275 new stores for our 2023 financial year.”
South Africa, the most industrialised economy on the continent, has experienced over 150 days of power cuts since the start of 2022, up from 75 in 2021 and 54 in 2020.
Despite the energy challenges, Shoprite, which is valued at just under R140-billion on the JSE, continues to gain market share.
The company said market share gains over the first quarter measured 1.4% versus the comparative period, “extending the period of uninterrupted market share gains in our core South African supermarket business to 43 months”.
The group is expected to release its 2023 interim results in March.
For more business news from Sunday World, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here
