Cape Town - Woolworths Holdings [JSE:WHL] will cut its prices by up to 30% from August in a bid to gain market share in Africa, The EastAfrican reported.
The firm's profits jumped by 70% after it dropped prices by 30% in Australia.
Ian Moir, Woolworths Africa group chief executive was in Kenya to open its eighth store in the country in a joint venture with Deacons, which owns and manages various international fashion brands.
“We seek to change the perception of buyers on Woolworths which is viewed as shops for the upmarket especially in Kenya our newest market,” he said in an interview with The EastAfrican.
The news agency reported that single commodities will go down by 20%, while bulks will go down by 30% in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
“As we expand our African footprint, we are working hard to offer our customers in these new markets the best possible value for our unique quality and innovation standards," Woolworths told Fin24.
The retailer said it was able to reposition prices to offer customers even better value for money, by achieving a range of operational efficiencies.
"We’ve learnt from years of trade locally and elsewhere that value for money is important to our customers,” it added.
Woolworths emerged as the industry leader for customer satisfaction, according to the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi) released in May.
The customer satisfaction score recorded for the retailer was the highest score for comparable supermarkets in the USA and in the UK.
In February, the firm reported a 21% rise in first-half profit chiefly as a result of contributions from its acquisition in Australia.
Woolworths said headline earnings per share totalled 164.2 cents in the six months to end-December compared with 135.7 a year earlier.
Woolworths has 60 stores in 12 African countries outside South Africa. They are: Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Lesotho, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Ghana.
- Fin24
The firm's profits jumped by 70% after it dropped prices by 30% in Australia.
Ian Moir, Woolworths Africa group chief executive was in Kenya to open its eighth store in the country in a joint venture with Deacons, which owns and manages various international fashion brands.
“We seek to change the perception of buyers on Woolworths which is viewed as shops for the upmarket especially in Kenya our newest market,” he said in an interview with The EastAfrican.
The news agency reported that single commodities will go down by 20%, while bulks will go down by 30% in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
“As we expand our African footprint, we are working hard to offer our customers in these new markets the best possible value for our unique quality and innovation standards," Woolworths told Fin24.
The retailer said it was able to reposition prices to offer customers even better value for money, by achieving a range of operational efficiencies.
"We’ve learnt from years of trade locally and elsewhere that value for money is important to our customers,” it added.
Woolworths emerged as the industry leader for customer satisfaction, according to the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi) released in May.
The customer satisfaction score recorded for the retailer was the highest score for comparable supermarkets in the USA and in the UK.
In February, the firm reported a 21% rise in first-half profit chiefly as a result of contributions from its acquisition in Australia.
Woolworths said headline earnings per share totalled 164.2 cents in the six months to end-December compared with 135.7 a year earlier.
Woolworths has 60 stores in 12 African countries outside South Africa. They are: Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Lesotho, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Ghana.
- Fin24