BUSINESS NEWS - Retailer Pick n Pay will continue to trim space across its store estate after a reset plan saw it shut dozens of loss-making stores in the last three years.
It will do this as leases come up for renewal. Because the group doesn’t disclose its total footprint (area), it is not clear how extensive this is. In the six months to 30 August, its occupancy costs declined by 2.6% on a normalised basis.
CEO Sean Summers says “there are a lot of stores that are still too big and not fit for purpose” and that he doesn’t “think it’s any different for most retailers that are out there today that run big store estates”.
He offers a few examples, including a “classic” at Kenilworth Centre around a kilometre from its head office. He says the store is “about” 6 000m2 in total currently and it could “literally halve that store”.
“We could take 2 500m2 [or] 2 800m2, and I can tell you now, we’d run a better business with far less wastage. And we may still [do] even more turnover, ironically.”
Read more on Caxton publication, The Citizen
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