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# Pick n Pay is about to report another loss, but it's a lot smaller than the last
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/pick-n-pay-is-about-to-report-another-loss-and-it-is-a-lot-smaller-than-the-last/
- Published: 2026-10-26T03:45:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-26T03:44:59.000Z
- Description: Pick n Pay's share price jumped after its trading statement said the half-year loss per share will be 40% to 50% smaller, with Boxer still growing and the supermarkets finally losing less.
- Author: Christian Maidman
- Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News, #big

Pick n Pay's share price rose 4.6% on Friday, closing at R21.12\. That is a lot of enthusiasm for a retailer that has taken a beating for years while it tries to turn itself around, and that is still losing money. What got investors buying back in was the trading statement it put out on Thursday evening: the loss per share for the six months to 30 August is expected to come in 40% to 50% smaller than a year ago. As for its full half-year results go out at 7:05 this morning.

## Why a smaller loss counts as good news

Pick n Pay has spent years losing ground to rivals such as Shoprite, while the supermarkets carrying its own name lost money. In 2023 it brought back former chief executive Sean Summers to fix that, and since then he has been closing underperforming stores, cutting costs and trying to win shoppers back. Getting those supermarkets back into profit is one of the main aims of his turnaround.

## Boxer keeps carrying the group, and now it has help

A big part of the story is Boxer, the discount chain Pick n Pay still owns most of. For years it has been the group's crown jewel, making money while the Pick n Pay stores lost it. This half, both moved the right way. In the statement's words, "Boxer delivered trading profit growth and the Pick n Pay segment delivered a moderately reduced trading loss."

The second half of that sentence is the one that matters more, because Boxer doing well is not new. Pick n Pay also supplies the context itself: last year's first-half headline loss, the cleaned-up figure South African listed companies report, was R439 million, so even a modest improvement turns into an impressive-looking percentage. 

## The road to break-even still runs to 2029

The supermarkets are now expected to break even in 2029, a target that has already been pushed back twice, from 2027 to 2028 and then to 2029\. A new way of staffing stores was meant to help get there, and in May it came with a retrenchment process that SACCAWU, Pick n Pay's main union, said put 22,000 store jobs at risk. On Thursday Pick n Pay said it had reached agreement with the union and withdrawn the process.

So investors have reason to be encouraged, but they are buying into a turnaround that is very much a work in progress. The rand figures behind those percentages, and what the union agreement contains, arrive with this morning's results, and the presentation follows at 8:30.