Largest Retail Chains in Sub Saharan Africa

Perhaps nowhere else has South Africa demonstrated its capacity as the continent's private sector leader than in its dominance of Sub Saharan Africa's (SSA) retail industry. The 11 largest retailers in SSA are all from the continent's southern most country.

While the largest retailers in other SSA countries contemplate opening a couple of new stores, the continent's largest retailer Shoprite is mulling hundreds of new stores in the coming 5 years. 

As South Africa's retailers flex muscle and rise above the local competition in Africa's most populous country and now largest economy Nigeria, that already huge gulf with non-South African players on the continent can only grow wider. Of the 10 largest South African retail chains, 6 are already in Nigeria.

Size perhaps precipitates another key distinction between South Africa's retailers and those of the rest of the region - the availability of information. All major retailers in South Africa are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and therefore required to make their financial results public. 

In contrast, virtually all significant players in the rest of the continent are privately owned. Fortunately, a good number do make their annual turnover available even though they may not provide access to their actual financials. One can also perform a 'smell test' on their numbers by bench-marking their results against similar sized businesses in similar markets.

In the course of this research, there were some pleasant surprises. For instance, Zimbabwe's economy is often assumed to be a complete basket case in every respect. Yet its local retailers are some of the largest in SSA outside South Africa. 

Outside South Africa, the only SSA countries that already have a relatively vibrant home grown formal retail sector are Kenya, Zimbabwe, Gabon, Angola and Cote d'Ivoire. Other countries are either still fairly virgin markets or are served by foreign retailers. Majority of homegrown retailers across the region operate solely within their home markets. The exception are companies from South Africa and Kenya.

There are hundreds perhaps thousands of distinct formal retail businesses across Africa (Kenya alone has more than 250 separate supermarket businesses) but very few have an annual turnover of more than US$200M a year.

The following two retailers from Nigeria should probably be on this list (revenues are likely somewhere within the $100M to $250M range). However, no information on their sales is currently available.

• Park n Shop (part of Artee Group which also owns the local franchise of Spar)
• Addide

French retailer Casino has a significant presence in several countries across Francophone SSA.

US$ exchange rates are as at April 2014.

For the Africa-wide list, click here