Clicks achieves record R50bn turnover

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DUDUZILE RAMELA: In its results for the year through August 2026, Clicks Group announced a milestone financial performance with turnover at R50.4 billion for the first time.

Cash generated from operations was R6.3 billion, headline earnings per share grew 4.4% to 1 421 cents, and a dividend was declared.

Bertina Engelbrecht is the CEO of Clicks Group, and she joins us on the line. Thank you very much for your time this evening, Bertina. So what characterised this reporting period? Congratulations.

BERTINA ENGELBRECHT: Thank you very much, and it was a milestone. R50 billion – not everybody gets to do that.

I was really hoping we would do R50 billion and R5 billion in profit, so we just missed it, [achieving] about R4.9 billion on profits.

But I think we’re going to hit that milestone next year.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Aha. You forged ahead with expanding your retail footprint, opening 41 new stores and 60 pharmacies. Your network is now at 1 110 stores and 840 pharmacies. Safe to say the investment has paid off?

BERTINA ENGELBRECHT: Yes. And in particular we look at things such as the core categories.

Do we see market share strengthening? We see that in pharmacy, in personal care, and in beauty – which is important for us.

And we hold the market shares in virtually every other area.

And then of course, ClubCard – what a phenomenal loyalty programme; such loyalty by those customers. Now at R13.1 million, 84.2% of our sales. And yes, the kicker: we returned R976 million in cash back to those customers to reward them for their loyalty.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: You reported internal selling price inflation of 1.2% for the second half of the 2026 financial year.

BERTINA ENGELBRECHT: Yes, and I think that’s how people need to look at same-store sales growth.

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Inflation was quite low, partly because we shielded the consumer from the ravages of the macroeconomics, which is something that I think all retailers have generally been doing.

When you look at that, that’s real growth, that’s growth in real terms that we’ve delivered to the market.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: You also experienced delays though, in implementing a new warehouse-management system at your Cape Town distribution centre. Just how much pressure did this add?

BERTINA ENGELBRECHT: Oh, it added a great deal of pressure. I can tell you I was driving around to the stores in the Western Cape in areas like the West Coast and so forth, and it pains me when I see a shelf that’s empty, or it pains me when I hear the staff are saying ‘We’ve got so much stock that has just come with a big truck and we have to pack it out now’.

At the half year we called the number. It depressed total sales in the half year by 0.9%. So quite a huge impact because peak Christmas trading has a huge impact – as well as Black Friday – on the first half of the year; and that carries through to the second half.

But we have recovered fully. We promised that we would sit down and that we would look at what we had done wrong, and we would learn from it.

We have seamlessly implemented the system at the Durban distribution centre, and so I think that augurs very well for having put all of that behind us.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Okay. Just in light of what you said, do you mind if I share something with you?

BERTINA ENGELBRECHT: Sure.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: This afternoon I took a walk, went to the closest mall, got something, and a colleague of mine had said: ‘Please, when you get there, I need something, something.’

I had no intention of going to Clicks, but it was close to where I was going.

Long story short, I go into Clicks, I’m waiting in the queue, and there are two tellers. The lady in front of me was on the phone and said, ‘I’m just waiting in the queue’. So I asked her, ‘What would make your experience better?’ She replied, ‘Service – if there were more tellers’ and I said, ‘Fair enough’.

Then I ask the one teller – there were only two – ‘What’s happening today?’ He said, ‘It’s stock-taking tomorrow, so we’re under a little bit of pressure’. ‘What would make your experience better with us? I asked.

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I can tell you that man did not complain, he did not flinch, but just said ‘Please be patient with us’.

So I wanted to say to you that you’ve got some amazing people. I won’t say which store it was, and I won’t mention that gentleman’s name. But I was taken aback, because when you speak of boxes that your staff have to unpack, it’s us, it’s stock take, it’s us at the till – and I’ve still got these boxes that I also need to unpack. I said, ‘Wow, thank you. I will spread the word’.

I’m sharing this with you because when I spoke to the lady in the queue, she asked me ‘Why? Do you work at head office?’.  I said ‘No, I’m going to be speaking to somebody who can do something about it today’.

But I think it’s also about a fine line, because she left and I couldn’t give her the feedback from the gentleman behind the counter to say he just wants a little bit of patience from us.

So, to your point, you’ve got amazing people. Maybe a word for your staff?

BERTINA ENGELBRECHT: Our people are truly amazing. We could not have in this year delivered, despite everything that was thrown at us. We couldn’t have delivered it without our people.

In fact from a market store we opened in the Kopanong Centre just yesterday, the staff phoned and said:

‘Do you mind? We don’t want extra pay, but we want to come in an hour earlier because we want to get everything ready for when the first customers cross the threshold.’

That’s the level of commitment that we see throughout our organisation.

I am so honoured and privileged to lead this company because I really stand on the shoulders of people who are incredible.

But we have to do better. I hear what you’ve said and what the customer said. We certainly have a focus on improving the quality of our service. That must be one of the distinguishing factors.

I think price is one thing that Clicks can offer, but ultimately it’s the way in which we make every single customer feel when they honour us with their money and with their presence.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Fair enough. Thank you so much for your time this evening, and congratulations once again. Bertina Engelbrecht is the CEO of Clicks Group.

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