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CHECKERS

SHOPRITE HOLDINGS LTD

Acquired in 1991, Checkers is the major brand after Shoprite. It operates stores throughout South Africa and in Namibia. It focuses more strongly on fresh produce and offers a wider range of choice food items to a more affluent clientele. 

INTRODUCTION

Checkers caters for customers in the upper-income groups and targets living standards measurement 7 to 10. This chain of supermarkets provides a product range suitable for the discerning shopper in a world-class retail environment. Acquired in 1991, Checkers is the major brand after Shoprite. It operates stores throughout South Africa and in some neighbouring countries. It focuses more strongly on fresh produce and offers a wider range of choice food items to a more affluent clientele.

Checkers has become a regular shopping destination for time-pressed consumers. It has strongly developed lifestyle departments such as for wine, cheese and meat.

The brand boasts two store formats namely supermarkets and large-format hyper stores.

After being managed and marketed under the Shoprite umbrella for 10 years, the Checkers brand was separated from Shoprite in 2001 as part of ongoing strategic planning to improve the company as well as the offer to consumers. The Checkers branches had become more viable and thus needed a more focused marketing strategy.

 

STRATEGY

There are currently 158 Checkers supermarkets with an emphasis on specialist departments such as the bakery, meat market, cheese and delicatessen counter, and wine store. Over the past year the focus on convenience has seen a strong increase in prepared food while the fruit and vegetable departments were expanded. 

HISTORY

The Shoprite Group acquired the ailing Checkers chain of 170 supermarkets in 1991 primarily to grow its market share, and to spread the geographical distribution of its stores nationally. Up to that point, the Shoprite Group was a Cape-based chain of some 75 supermarkets.

Further motivation to take over Checkers was to save the chain financially, and to also save the jobs of its thousands of employees. To achieve this, the two brands were merged regardless of the fact that Shoprite catered for the broad middle to lower consumer market, while Checkers targeted the middle to upper income groups. Checkers stores were integrated with Shoprite strategically by keeping the brand name Checkers for those stores that were financially viable and that were located in the corresponding target market. Checkers stores, which were more suitable to the Shoprite profile in terms of their location and customer base were converted to Shoprite stores and the non-viable ones were closed down.