Food and furniture retailer Shoprite said liquor sales declined by 21.8% due to Covid-19 nationwide lockdown regulations with outlets closed for a total of 79 days over six months.
The group released a trading update for the six months ended 27 December 2020 on Monday where it was also announced that the group incurred Covid-19 related costs which amounted to approximately R180.1 million.
"The group's LiquorShop business was required to close for trade on Fridays and weekends and more recently, close completely. The total number of days our liquor business was closed totalled 79 days over the six months: 60 days during the first quarter and 19 days during the second quarter," said the group in the update.
However, group total sales of merchandise increased by 4.7% to approximately R83.4 billion.
The group's core business, Supermarkets RSA, saw a sales growth of 5.6%, contributing 78% to group sales.
Breaking this down, Checkers and Checkers Hyper reported sales growth of 11.1% while Shoprite and Usave reported sales growth of 5.6%.
The Furniture segment, comprising of OK Furniture and House & Home, increased sales by 15.7%
Supermarkets RSA opened a net of 45 stores and the OK Franchise business added a net of 28 stores.
The group's "other" operating segments, including the OK Franchise,Transpharm, MediRite Pharmacies, Checkers Food Services (CFS) and Computicket, reported sales growth of 10.0%.
The Cape Town based retailer announced that the terms of the sale of all or a majority stake in its supermarkets in Nigeria have been concluded and the transaction has been lodged with the Nigerian Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for approval.
The group expects the transaction to be approved by the end of the 2021 financial year.