JSE-listed retail and wholesale group Massmart is making a flurry of announcements ahead of the release of its full-year results on Friday – the latest being that it is in negotiations to acquire a controlling stake in grocery delivery service OneCart Pty (Ltd).
Massmart which owns Makro, Builders Warehouse and the struggling Game retail chain said on Wednesday that the planned acquisition is in line with its “intent to accelerate e-commerce growth”.
A key objective going forward would be to invest in aggressively growing and fully supporting OneCart’s existing independent retailer marketplace model that enables consumers to order from multiple retailers via a single platform,” he added.
The latest announcement follows Massmart confirming in a Sens statement on Friday that it has signed a deal to sell its Cambridge Food and Rhino Cash & Carry chains, together with parts of the Masscash business and Fruitspot, to JSE-listed Shoprite Group for around R1.36 billion.
All major retailers, including in the food, clothing and general merchandise retail space, have reported major spikes in online sales, which has been boosted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has seen more people stay home or work from home since the outbreak at the beginning of last year.
According to Massmart, online sales across the group in 2020 increased by 58.6%, while the number of unique e-commerce customers grew by 73% and click-and-collect orders increased by 69.5%.
Its e-commerce unit contributed 1.8% of total sales, representing a significant increase over the prior year.
In addition to better leveraging these assets, our immediate opportunity is to improve and expand our digital sales platforms and last-mile delivery capability. The successful acquisition of OneCart will go a long way toward achieving this.”
Slape added: “Successful closure of the proposed OneCart transaction will contribute immeasurably to our centralised e-commerce capability that has specifically been established to concentrate scarce expertise, including Walmart experience, in a way that will accelerate adoption of e-commerce best practice at Massmart.”
Tweet.
In other news – Remember Sphelele Mzimela(Mazaza) who was fired for falling pregnant on Uzalo? – Meet her twin babies
Sometimes productions can be harsh to their cast, but that depends on what they agreed on. Sphelele Mzimela got fired on Uzalo in 2020 for allegedly falling pregnant while her role was on fire.
She played the role of Mazaza on Uzalo and they had to replace her immediately because her role in the show was big at the moment as they had said. Learn more
Source: moneyweb
