Pick n Pay quits Nigeria after four years and two stores, selling its 51% stake

Pick n Pay, South Africa's third-largest grocery retailer, entered Nigeria less than five years earlier through a partnership with A.G. Leventis (Nigeria), opening its first store in the upscale Victoria Island district of Lagos. By October 2024 the bet amounted to exactly two stores.

On 28 October 2024 CEO Sean Summers announced the company would sell its 51% stake in the joint venture and exit Nigeria, part of a strategy to restructure outside its home market. The same day the group reported a half-year loss before tax and capital items of 1.1 billion rand (about $62 million) for the 26 weeks to 25 August, up from 837.2 million rand a year earlier, driven by trading losses in core supermarkets and rising borrowing costs; trading losses in the Pick n Pay division rose 9.1% to 718.9 million rand on contracting gross margins.

The retreat concentrated the group on what worked: the discount Boxer division grew trading profit 16% to 801.4 million rand on 12% higher sales, and Pick n Pay readied a Johannesburg listing of Boxer to raise up to 8 billion rand ($452 million) — set to be the continent's biggest offering of the year. Summers expressed "quiet confidence" that Pick n Pay division trading losses could be cut by up to 50% for the full year.

Just two stores after four years; the 51% stake was sold with no price disclosed, while the group's half-year loss widened to R1.1bn ($62M).

Four years in Africa's most populous country produced exactly two stores — the venture never found a scalable format.

Multinationals were leaving Nigeria over profitability challenges, and Pick n Pay joined the list rather than keep funding the losses.

Capital was scarcer at home: borrowing costs were rising and the core supermarket division was bleeding, making the Nigerian stake the marginal bet.

Boxer's 16% trading-profit growth showed where the group's returns actually were — the exit bought focus for the turnaround, not retreat from retail.

A joint venture that never scales past a flagship is a standing loss; cutting it is easier than funding it through a crisis at home.

The 51% stake sale was announced on 28 October 2024, with terms undisclosed. Pick n Pay pushed ahead with plans to list Boxer on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange by the end of 2024, targeting up to R8 billion ($452 million) in what would be Africa's biggest listing that year, while guiding to halve Pick n Pay division trading losses for the full year and citing solid momentum in clothing and online.