Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers says he would rather their financial turnaround take longer to be more deeply rooted within the group, than work too fast and have to come back and restructure the group again two years later.
Pick n Pay has said its financial turnaround will be a multi-year process, but by even those standards, what its management had hoped might be a three-year process might now turn out to be longer, in spite of the steady progress made, CEO Sean Summers admitted on Monday.
The group, South Africa’s second biggest grocery store chain, launched a recovery plan late 2023 to restore profitability, simplify operations, and revive the core supermarket business. Its financial results for the 52 weeks to March 1 saw the operating loss reduce by 5.4% to R386 million.
“While Pick n Pay’s trading loss increased, the business is fundamentally stronger than two-and-a-half years ago as a result of the action we have taken and the investments we made,” Summers said.
“We now have the balance sheet strength to support our return to profitability, but achieving break-even in Pick n Pay requires the successful execution of all six strategic initiatives, including the recalibration of our employment costs.”
