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Retail giant Pick n Pay is expanding its presence in Zimbabwe this year by opening four more branches in Harare

Business Reporter
SOUTH African retail giant Pick n Pay is expanding its presence in Zimbabwe this year by opening four more branches in Harare. Last year, the group rebranded eight TM supermarkets in the country to Pick n Pay.

TM Supermarkets is part of the retail arm of Meikles Limited, a listed concern on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

Pick n Pay owns a 49 percent stake in TM Supermarkets while Meikles Limited holds a controlling 51 percent.

Pick n Pay managing director Dharmalingum Dass said the group wanted to expand its market share in Zimbabwe.

“Our plans for the year 2015 are to open four more stores this year, mainly in Harare. We’ll also be revamping Bradfield in Bulawayo and Vic Falls,” he said in response to questions from Business Chronicle.

He said the group, which has 95 branches on the continent including Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi, among others, performed well last year.

“Performance was very good last year. We met our expectations,” he said without disclosing the financial figures of their performance.

At the moment, most of the products sold at Pick n Pay outlets were imported from South Africa and the retail chain intends to increase locally sourced products as soon as the local manufacturing industry’s competitiveness improves.

According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries manufacturing sector survey report, capacity utilisation by local companies dropped to 36.3 percent in 2014 from 39.6 percent the previous year.

This was largely due to liquidity constraints among other economic challenges prevailing in the economy.

In May last year, CZI president Charles Msipa said the manufacturing sector needed an estimated $8 billion working capital.