Massmart up despite economic doldrums

A customer browses electronic goods at a Game supermarket, part of Massmart Holdings Ltd in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, October 28, 2010. Photographer: Nadine Hutton/Bloomberg News

A customer browses electronic goods at a Game supermarket, part of Massmart Holdings Ltd in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, October 28, 2010. Photographer: Nadine Hutton/Bloomberg News

Published May 26, 2016

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Johannesburg - South African wholesale and retail group Massmart’s sales rose 9 percent for the first 21 weeks of its financial year despite a sluggish economy and a drought-induced rise in food prices, it said on Thursday.

Shares in Massmart, a unit of US company Wal-Mart, rose 3.8 percent to R124 after it released the statement.

Read also:  Retailers positive about growth despite pinch

The retailer, which owns food wholesalers and wholesale building materials warehouses in Africa's most industrialised country and the rest of Africa, said it had opened seven stores during the three-month period to March 2016.

The firm said it plans to open a total of 13 stores this year, representing net space growth of 3.1 percent.

Massmart said it would deliver “a satisfactory performance for the six months” partly by implementing cost controls.

 

REUTERS

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