South Africa’s five biggest retail groups revealed
Professional services group Deloitte has published its annual Global Powers of Retailing report for 2018, ranking the 250 biggest retail groups across the world – including five from South Africa.
The ranking is based on publicly available data for FY2016, covering fiscal years ended through June 2017. Deloitte analyses a company’s performance across geographies, sectors, and channels.
Shoprite was 96th in the world ($10,340 retail revenue), Spar 156th ($6,232), Pick n Pay 176th ($5,418) and Woolworth 191st ($4,944). Spar and Woolworths are also listed by Deloitte as the 27th and 28th fastest-growing retailers among the top 250, with the former achieving a compound annual growth rate of 19.1 per cent in revenue since FY2011, while the latter has seen a CAGR of 18.9 per cent over the same period
Steinhoff led SA retail – but its figures accumulated before the accounting scandal, which has rocked the company worldwide and led to the resignation of forcing CEO Markus Jooste.
Before that, the retail group’s expansion into international markets was well underway, with what Deloitte described as a “buying spree” in late 2016, where it acquired US-based Mattress Firm, UK single-price value retailer Poundland, SA’s Tekkie Town footwear retailer, and Australian furniture retailer Fantastic Holdings Limited.
US mega-retailer has held onto its title as the world’s largest retail group, and is no danger of losing the crown with sales revenue four times larger than its closest competitor, Costco.
The top 10 retailers worldwide, which account for 30.7 per cent of total revenue generated in the top 250, have remained largely unchanged, with only one new entrant, the CVS Health Corporation, taking over from Tesco in the UK, which dropped to 11th.
The biggest growing star, however, was Amazon.com, which climbed four places to be the 6th largest retailer in the world.
According to Deloitte, Amazon’s growth was fueled by a constant stream of product and service innovations, which has pushed double-digit growth since its inception in 1994.
“Near 20 per cent year-over-year retail revenue growth once again propelled the e-tailer up the leader board, this time leapfrogging four retailers along the way to take the No. 6 position, up from No. 10 on the previous list,” Deloitte said.
“Amazon’s aggressive push into grocery, including the 2017 acquisition of natural bricks-and-mortar grocer Whole Foods Market, should continue to propel the company forward. Ranking 186th in 2000 when it first entered the Top 250, Amazon is poised to ascend several more spots in the coming years,” the group said.
Download infographic HERE cip-2018-global-powers-retailing-info-top-250
