South Africa-based supermarket chain Shoprite has reported total sales of R215bn ($11.2bn) in fiscal year (FY) 2023, up 16.9% from FY22.

For the 52 weeks ending 2 July 2023, Supermarkets RSA segment’s sale of merchandise increased by 17.8% to R173.6bn.

The retailer’s diluted headline earnings per share (DHEPS) increased by 9.7% to 1,159.4 cents in FY23. Its adjusted headline earnings per share (adjusted HEPS) also grew by 3.8% to 1,161.2 cents over the FY.

During the fiscal, Shoprite opened 340 net new stores, including 94 stores acquired from Massmart. It ended the FY with a total of 3,326 stores.

The supermarket chain also created 8,131 new jobs in FY23, including 4,480 jobs retained from the Massmart acquisition.

Shoprite chief executive officer Pieter Engelbrecht said: “In many aspects, our 2023 year was extraordinary. The group gained record levels of market share, saved customers over R13.5bn in Xtra Savings and still managed to increase profits and dividends despite the prohibitive cost to the business as a result of unprecedented levels of load-shedding.

“Sales growth of 17.8% in our core Supermarkets RSA business is evidence that we continue to derive the benefits of our multi-year transformation strategy underpinned by our Smarter Shoprite and core supermarkets segmentation strategy.

“Checkers and Checkers Hyper’s 18.0% sales growth can be attributed to superb delivery on the value and range our customers have come to know, trust and expect from the brand. Checkers Sixty60 increased sales by 81.5%, underscoring the continued growth of our Checkers omnichannel customer and validating our strategy in terms of our investment in digital and data-led decision making.”

In addition, Shoprite plans to spend approximately R8.5bn across various areas of the business in 2024.