Shoprite (officially Shoprite Holdings Ltd) is Africa's largest

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

retailer. The company's headquarters are in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, where it was founded in 1979. Shoprite is a public company listed on the

Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...

and

A2X Markets A2X Markets is a South African stock exchange, founded in 2017. It was launched with the goal of creating competition in the South African marketplace. History A2X is an MTF styled stock exchange that was awarded a licence to operate an exc ...

in South Africa, with secondary listings on both the Namibian and

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

stock exchanges. The company operates major low-income supermarket chain USave, a separate low-income chain under its namesake, as well as two

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

chains - Medrite and Transpharm -

furniture Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...

chain House & Home, the mid-to-high income

Checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), is a group of Abstract strategy game, strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game ...

chain, South Africa's largest ticketing provider, Computicket, numerous

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

divisions, and various other businesses. The group also manages a large

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...

portfolio, comprising both owned and head-leased properties. The Shoprite Group employs more than 163,000 people and is the largest

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...

employer in South Africa. As of June 2025, Shoprite had 3,417 stores (including 623 franchise outlets) across 10 African countries.

History

The Shoprite Group of companies was established when PEP Stores purchased a small grocery company with eight stores from the Geller and Rogut families in 1979. In 1990 Shoprite opened in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. In 1991, it acquired the national Checkers chain. In 1995 the first store in

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

, was opened. That same year they acquired a centralised distribution company Sentra, which had been acting as a central buyer for 550 owner-managed supermarkets, thereby allowing Shoprite to expand into

franchising Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busines ...

. In 1997 struggling OK Bazaars was acquired by the company from

South African Breweries South African Breweries (officially The South African Breweries Limited, informally SAB) is a major brewery headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller until its interests were sold to Anheuser-Bu ...

for one

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, adding 139 OK Bazaars stores and 18 Hyperamas to the company. In 2000 the group opened its first supermarkets in

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

and

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. Two years later the company acquired the

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

stores of French chain

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. The same year the company bought three Tanzanian supermarkets from Score Supermarket and opened its first

hypermarket A hypermarket or superstore is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full grocery lines and general merchandise. In ...

outside of South Africa in

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. In 2005 the group acquired Foodworld as well as South African ticket seller Computicket, and opened the first Shoprite LiquorShop. The company also opened its first Nigerian store in the

Victoria Island Victoria Island () is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the eighth-largest island in the world, and at in area, it is Canada's second-largest i ...

area of

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

in December 2005.innovative In 2008 the Shoprite Group was added to the JSE Top-40 Index of blue-chips. In 2019 Shoprite won the Proudly South African Brand Award and was voted the best in the Grocery Store category as part of the Tiso-Blackstar/Sunday Times Top Brand Survey. Deloitte's Global Powers of Retailing 2019 (covering the 2017 financial year) ranked The Shoprite Group as the 86th largest retailer in the world. In 2011 it was announced that the Shoprite Group had entered into an agreement with Metcash Trading Africa (Pty) Limited. Under the terms of that agreement, the franchise division of Metcash was to be sold to Shoprite Checkers, including franchise arrangements with franchisees operating retail stores under registered trademark names such as Friendly and Seven Eleven. On 19 April 2012, Shoprite became the first South African retailer to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as it opened the doors of a new supermarket in Gombe,

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...

. Shoprite Holdings announced at the company's annual general meeting held on 31 October 2016 that the company's chief executive officer,

Whitey Basson James Wellwood "Whitey" Basson (born 8 January 1946) is a South African businessman and billionaire who was largely responsible for growing a small business called Shoprite from an 8-store chain valued at R1 million into an international re ...

, had decided to retire at the end of December 2016. The board appointed Pieter Engelbrecht (born c. 1970), the former chief operating officer, as the incoming CEO as of 1 January 2017. He had been with the company for over 20 years and played a leading role in the company's growth under Basson's leadership. Shoprite Holdings was an owner of Hungry Lion until 2020. In September 2021, Shoprite withdrew from Uganda, Madagascar and Kenya, citing financial losses. In 2022, Shoprite also exited the Congolese market. In October 2024, the group announced that it had opened 68 stores in Africa, including 53 stores in South Africa. By 2025, Shoprite had 3,417 stores in 10 African countries.

Brands

Shoprite Holdings Limited comprises the following entities: In many of its stores, Shoprite Holdings sells products under house brands, including Checkers house brand, Forage & Feast, Homegrown, Lovies, Simple Truth, U, Ritebrand, Championship Boerewors, Pot O' Gold, and healthy kids meal brand Oh My Goodness, which was co-developed by chef

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter, and writer. His restaurant group, List of restaurants owned or operated by Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has ...

and his daughter, Matilda.

References

SHP - Shoprite Holdings - Reviewed results for the 52 weeks to 3 July 2022
{{portalbar, Supermarkets, Companies Holding companies of South Africa South African companies established in 1979 Companies based in Cape Town Companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Companies in the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index Retail companies established in 1979 Holding companies established in 1979 Supermarkets of South Africa Department stores of South Africa South African brands Multinational companies headquartered in South Africa