Moneyweb reports that food retailer Shoprite, which boasts a 140,000-strong workforce, created 4,305 new jobs in SA in the second half of 2020.

This was revealed in the group’s latest interim results for the six-months ending December 2020, released on Tuesday. The new jobs came despite there being some Covid-19 trade restrictions still in place during the period, including the liquor bans and curfews. Shoprite did not specifically say in which areas of the SA business the jobs were created (most likely through the growth of its highly successful Checkers Sixty60 on-demand delivery service and through new store openings such as Rosebank Mall and Mall of Thembisa). Nevertheless, this is welcome news in the face of SA’s record unemployment rate and with some other retailers such as Massmart having cut jobs and closed stores. The food retail giant, which counts Shoprite, Checkers, USave and OK stores among its chains, reported solid results for its core ‘Supermarkets RSA’ business despite trade restrictions. Shoprite increased its trading profit by 18.3% in the period, to just over R4.7 billion. The group also managed to make headway in bringing down its debt by R5.9 billion, to R5.5 billion. “None of this was achieved in isolation. It was due to the collective effort of the more than 140,000 employees across the group… who came together daily to serve our customers and sustain the growth of this great company,” group CEO Pieter Engelbrecht declared.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Suren Naidoo at Moneyweb <https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/companies-and-deals/shoprite-says-it-has-created-over-4-300-new-jobs/>

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