South Africa’s grocery retailer giant Shoprite Holdings SHPJ.J has confirmed that it is exiting Uganda and Madagascar, adding to its growing list of African departures.
Shoprite is said to have been reviewing its long-term options across the continent over the past year as currency devaluations, lower commodity prices and high inflation have hit household incomes and weighed on earnings.
The retailer also forecast an up to 25.3% rise in annual basic headline earnings per share from continuing operations.
The exit of Shoprite from Uganda will mark the end of 20 years of serving the Ugandan market, since the retailer opened its first store in Kampala in 2000.
The grocery retailer has encountered a tough operating environment, in Sub-Saharan Africa, including, in neighbouring Kenya where it earlier closed shop.
By 2015, Shoprite was running a cautious expansion strategy, operating three stores. Faced with losses and poor sales, the company closed its Metroplex Mall branch in mid-2015, remaining with only two. That year, the company reported a 7% decline in sales, from UGX56.9 billion to UGX53 billion. The same year, losses worsened from UGX3.5bn in 2014 to UGX11.4 billion in 2015.
In 2016, sales picked up by mere a3.4% to UGX54.8 billion from UGX53 billion but because of the savings made from closing the Metroplex store, the firm posted a UGX4.6 billion profit. In 2017, again sales improved slightly by 4.8% to UGX57.3 billion, but the 2016, profit could not be sustained. Profit for 2017 was only a minuscule UGX19.6 million profit.
By end of 2017, Shoprite registered UGX24.5 billion in accumulated losses.
The company then decided to undo its conservative expansion strategy. In April 2018, a third branch was opened the Acacia Mall in Kamwokya, Kampala. A fourth store was opened at Entebbe’s Victoria Mall in June 2018, followed by the fifth one on April 4th, 2019, it opened its fifth store in Uganda at Village Mall, Bugolobi. Interesting to note, the three premises were previously occupied by the failed Nakumatt.
Where Stanbic Made and Lost Money in 2025It appears, that although by opening 3 new stores in rapid succession, the company jumped its sales by 81% from UGX57.3 billion at the end of 2017 to UGX103.7 billion at the end of 2020, and even made a decent UGX3.6 billion profit, these gains came at a disproportionate cost.
Carrefour takeover
In May, CEO East Africa Magazine broke the news of Majid Al Futtaim, the Franchise holder for French Supermarkets giants in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia was finalising talks with Shoprite Group to acquire the Shoprite business in Uganda.
“Carrefour approached them, and Shoprite is listening and waiting for an offer they can’t resist,” one source told the publication.
“Between you and me, this deal is closed. They are finalising the practical details and possibly filing the necessary regulatory paperwork, before formally announcing the deal,” another source told CEO East Africa Magazine.
However, when CEO East Africa approached both the Shoprite Group and Majid Al Futtaim, they both neither denied, nor confirmed the deal.
At the time, Shoprite said: “The Shoprite Group constantly reviews its business operations as part of its ongoing evaluations of current and future performance and it will update the market as and when appropriate to do so.”
