Keypoints:
- Shoprite exits Ghana and Malawi due to losses
- Retailers struggle with Africa-wide market pressures
- Group focuses on growth back in South Africa
SHOPRITE Holdings is closing its operations in Ghana and Malawi, as the South African retail powerhouse deepens its withdrawal from non-domestic African markets. The move marks Shoprite’s seventh exit from the continent outside South Africa and signals a sharper pivot back to its core territory.
The company has confirmed that it is winding down operations in Malawi, subject to regulatory approval, and is in advanced talks to sell its stores and distribution centre in Ghana.
Citing ‘tough trading conditions, continuous financial losses and rising operational costs’, Shoprite said the exits were a necessary step to streamline its business and strengthen focus on its domestic operations.
South African retailers in retreat
Shoprite’s latest departure mirrors a broader trend among South African retailers scaling back their once-ambitious pan-African expansion strategies. Massmart, which is owned by Walmart, recently closed all Game stores in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Nigeria. Builders Warehouse also shut its outlet in Nairobi, while Pick n Pay pulled out of Nigeria in late 2024. Tiger Brands, meanwhile, divested from Kenya’s Haco Industries.
These exits reveal the persistent headwinds plaguing retail expansion on the continent: surging inflation, currency instability, dollar-denominated leases, high import duties, and regulatory bottlenecks. Many companies have struggled to localise effectively or establish reliable supply chains across multiple jurisdictions.
‘The dream of pan-African retail is proving harder to realise than many anticipated,’ a Johannesburg-based retail analyst told Africa Briefing. ‘South African companies assumed they could replicate their domestic model elsewhere, but the local realities are far more complex and costly.’
Back to basics: Home market drives growth
Despite the pullbacks abroad, Shoprite’s business in South Africa is booming. In mid-2024, it launched a new digital wholesale platform under its Cash & Carry brand, targeting small informal traders. The platform offers bulk orders and delivery within a 50km radius, serving spaza shops and other micro-retailers.
Group sales are expected to rise from R231bn in 2024 to over R252bn (about $14bn) in 2025—an almost 9 percent increase. That kind of growth makes the company’s strategy clear: double down on markets where scale, customer insight and logistics work in its favour.
‘We are directing our capital and resources towards opportunities that deliver sustainable returns,’ Shoprite noted in its statement.
Ghana exit marks end of West African bet
While Shoprite has not publicly named the buyer in Ghana, sources familiar with the transaction say talks are well advanced for the sale of its retail locations and central warehouse. Once finalised, the exit will draw a line under the company’s West African push, once seen as a gateway to major consumer markets.
As the retailer recalibrates, the broader message is unavoidable: the path to pan-African retail dominance is riddled with risk. For Shoprite, the solution now lies in retreating from the frontier and reinforcing what works best—its home turf.
