Shoprite Nigeria struggling under new owners as shelves go empty, stores close 

When Shoprite arrived in Nigeria in 2005, it was hailed as the dawn of modern retail in the country. The South African grocery giant rapidly opened 25 outlets across 13 states, supported by a 4,700-square-metre distribution centre in Lagos directly connected to local farmers.

According to information on its website, Shoprite handled around 34 million transactions a year, employed more than 2,000 people, and became the face of chain store business across Nigeria.

Two decades on, that promise is fast fading. Four years after its Nigerian operation was taken over by Nigerian investors and lauded as a triumph of localisation, a tour of Shoprite outlets by PREMIUM TIMES found shuttered doors, empty aisles, and frustrated shoppers.

In May 2021, Shoprite Holdings, the parent company and Africa’s biggest grocer, retreated from Nigeria amid a tough operating environment and a foreign exchange squeeze that resulted in dollar shortages. Persianas Investment, a private unlimited company and property and retail group, founded by developer Tayo Amusan, bought the business.

The acquisition was executed through a special-purpose vehicle, Ketron Investment Limited, incorporated in February 2019. Ketron retained the Shoprite brand under a franchise agreement and pledged to expand the footprint and deepen local sourcing after obtaining five years of technical support from the Shoprite Group.

Persianas, which has the reputation of developing The Palms in Lagos and other malls in Ibadan, Enugu, and Kwara, already had some experience in the retail space, running a subsidiary called Persianas Retail.

That unit is led by Mr Amusan’s wife, Ayo Amusan, a former City of London risk management specialist who has overseen the group’s fashion and lifestyle franchises, including Lacoste, Puma, and Hugo Boss. According to The Business of Fashion, a global fashion and lifestyle news outlet, her husband focuses on the property portfolio.

Four years on, a gulf exists between promise and performance. Many Shoprite shelves are bare, suppliers complain of missed payments, and several stores are under lock.

While Shoprite struggles in Nigeria, its South African operation continues to report strong performance. The 2022 annual financial report of the Cape Town-based retailer showed trading profit climbed 6.8 per cent to R11 billion. The South African division contributed almost 91 per cent of the profit; its share rose to R10 billion from R9.4 billion the previous year. Revenue jumped from R171.1 billion in 2021 to R188 billion in 2022. It climbed further to R220 billion in 2023, and R236 billion in 2024, reaching R257 billion in the first six months of 2025 alone.

Shoprite’s experience in Nigeria is not unique.

Many multinationals in the consumer goods space have also left Nigeria or scaled back operations. Unilever, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer, and PZ Cussons are among those that have exited or scaled back in recent years, citing foreign-exchange shortages, high import duties, and weak demand.

Empty aisles

Shoprite’s decline is most noticeable inside its stores. In Abuja, branches at Apo, Jabi, and Silverbird Mall have limited stock, with some shelves left empty. At Silverbird Mall, once a hive of activities for shoppers, footfall has sharply diminished at the Shoprite store. “Even biscuits are hard to find,” a parent shopping with his children said.

Munira Lawal, a civil servant who bought groceries at the Jabi outlet, lamented, “You come here and basic things like bread, milk, or soap are not available. We end up going to smaller supermarkets in the neighbourhood.”

In Apo, a young man named Ahmed Abdulhadi said he now visits less often. “Before, you could get everything here in one place. Now, it is a gamble. Sometimes you waste your transport fare,” he said.

Workers are also facing mounting pressure. A sales representative in Apo said staff frequently bear the brunt of customers’ anger. “People get angry because they can’t find what they want, and it feels like management doesn’t know what to do,” the worker said, adding that many employees fear that their jobs are on the line.

The same pattern is evident across the country. In Kaduna, a staff member disclosed that the shelves had been “scanty for quite a long time.” The once-bustling branch in Akure had only one of more than 10 payment points operating. A worker, who asked not to be named, said the store had not received fresh supplies this year.

“Since the beginning of the year, no new product has been produced,” he said. “All you are seeing here are old stocks, and we were told we have to sell out these ones before a new set of products will arrive.”

He admitted staff were initially worried the store might shut down, but said the management had reassured them.

“Initially, we were afraid, thinking they were going to fold up, but the management assured us that nothing like that was going to happen,” he said.

The employee noted that salaries were being paid and no layoffs had taken place. “Even if they are paying us salaries and nobody is sacked, we were concerned about how we can continue to receive salaries when the sales are falling and new products are not being brought. But we believe what the management said that things will change for the better very soon,” he said.

At Shoprite outlets in Victoria Island and Ikeja in Lagos, PREMIUM TIMES observed half-empty shelves and wide gaps where items should be.

At the Victoria Island branch around noon, only a few bread loaves were displayed at the bakery, while a large shelf stood empty. Biscuits were sparsely arranged across another shelf. Customer traffic was light, and the bag room at the entrance remained unused.

Several shelves were also bare at Ikeja. Staff declined to comment but assured that more stock would arrive soon.

“I came here expecting to get a few things for my family, but it seems they don’t have basic items like soap and body spray,” one customer at Victoria Island said.

Shuttered outlets

Closures have deepened Shoprite’s troubles. The company shut its Kano branch in January 2024 and, in June of the same year, closed its Novare Central Mall outlet in Abuja, citing unsustainable operating costs. Another Abuja store in Lugbe was temporarily closed after generator breakdowns disrupted operations. It has since reopened, although many of its shelves remain empty.

Several stores have also closed in other parts of the country. Staff and shoppers in Ibadan and Ilorin confirmed that the outlets there had not opened for weeks.

Adenike Oni, a customer who visited the Palms Mall in Ibadan, said the shutdown was a shock. “We thought it was just a renovation at first, but it has been closed for months,” she said. “People keep asking when it will reopen, but no one seems to know.”

Suppliers say the strain began soon after the takeover.

Dayo, a former vendor, was a supplier at the outlets in Maryland Mall and Ikeja City Mall. He recalled how things changed in an X post via his handle, @diadem_official.

“At Shoprite ICM and Maryland Mall alone, I used to supply over 300 cartons every two weeks. Payment was always made within seven days. They never defaulted. Three months after they sold Shoprite to a Nigerian company, they didn’t pay staff salaries or vendors, until the staff staged multiple protests and most resigned. That was just in 2021,” he said.

Some Lagos outlets, including Festac and Jakande, now operate on a skeletal basis. “Once light is out, they do not put on their generator; they rather shut down until electricity is restored,” a representative said.

The company allegedly owes suppliers hundreds of millions of naira in unpaid invoices. A senior executive of one of Shoprite’s major beverage suppliers in Lagos State told PREMIUM TIMES about her firm’s experience.

“What people are saying online is sadly true,” she said. “Shoprite is not only owing us; it owes other big suppliers, too. Some of these debts have dragged on for months. It’s frightening because we can all see stores closing, even in Lagos, and we don’t know which one might be next.”

The executive, who asked not to be named, said the delays have disrupted production plans and cash flow.

“We have stopped supplying in bulk since payments don’t come in, and everything slows down. Everyone is anxious now,” he said.

A wider malaise

Shoprite’s ordeal cannot be divorced from Nigeria’s own struggling economy. Headline inflation rose to its peak in almost 30 years last December, before showing signs of deceleration this year. The naira has lost over two-thirds of its value since mid-2023, exchanging at N1,475.35 to a dollar as of 17 October. Fuel now retails at almost N1,000 a litre, compared to below N200 three years ago, while power cuts often force stores to rely on costly diesel generators.

Businesses across the fast-moving consumer goods sector are squeezed amid sky-high borrowing rates.

Companies that once sold tinned goods now package them in sachets so households can afford them, while many packaged products continue to diminish in size while their prices stay the same, a new economic trend that has been named “shrinkflation.”

Felicia Awolope, an economist and senior investment research analyst at Meristem Securities, said Shoprite’s difficulties mirror the wider struggles of Nigeria’s fast-moving consumer goods sector. She noted that the industry has endured a ‘rough patch’ as inflation, foreign exchange volatility, and weak consumer spending have eroded profitability and disrupted supply chains.

“Businesses that serve the everyday consumer have had to adapt,” she explained. “You see products once sold in tins now offered in sachets, so people can still afford them. Diapers, sanitary pads, and other essentials have followed this trend. That’s how companies avoid losing their market completely and keep customers coming back.”

She stressed that the challenge is not only macroeconomic. Indigenous chains like Foodco, Justrite, Jendol, and Bokku have been expanding and winning customers.

“Some of these other retail chains are still doing very well, to be honest,” she said, pointing to growing middle-class demand now being met by smaller supermarkets and local players.

According to Ms Awolope, the survival of large retailers increasingly depends on strategies like backward integration, which reduces their reliance on imports.

“It protects them against FX fluctuations and volatility,” she said. “It gives more control over their value chain and could improve profitability when they start seeing benefits.”

Aliyu Ilias, an economist and supply-chain expert, said Shoprite’s struggles are symptomatic of Nigeria’s shrinking consumer base. “People do not have money to buy things like before,” he observed. “They are looking at their needs, not their desire or want.”

He explained that Shoprite once thrived on offering more than just goods. “People actually buy experience from Shoprite compared to the product,” he said, noting that tighter household budgets, online shopping, and the spread of smaller neighbourhood stores have dimmed the chain’s appeal.

“To remain competitive, Shoprite must rethink its business model and expand into e-commerce,” he said. He added that the difficulties reflect a broader trend in the FMCG sector, where weak purchasing power has left companies battling unsold stock. “Things are even getting cheaper now, but people do not have money to buy them because of the value of money and the disposable income that people have,” he said.

Continental retreat

Shoprite’s trouble in Nigeria is also a facet of a general scaling down of its operations across Africa. In August, the retailer announced that it was selling its businesses in Ghana and Malawi as part of a plan to focus more on South Africa, its home market.

The supermarket chain, which once sprang up like mushrooms across the continent to overtake rivals such as Pick’n Pay, has been striving hard to find a foothold in several markets due to currency swings, double-digit inflation, and high import costs.

Shoprite Malawi signed an agreement in June to sell five stores, pending approval from the Competition and Fair Trading Commission and the Reserve Bank of Malawi. In Ghana, the company has received a binding offer for seven stores and a warehouse, with the sale considered highly likely.

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These planned exits follow earlier withdrawals from Nigeria, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Madagascar. The company also has limited new investments in supermarkets outside South Africa.

 “Reset”

Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited, which operates the Shoprite franchise in Nigeria, rejects the perception that it is collapsing. In a recent statement, it denied any plan to exit Nigeria, describing the current difficulties as part of a “reset” of its business model.

“Yes, it has been a tough period, but this is not a collapse; it is a reset,” said the company’s chief strategy officer, Bunmi Adeleye.

“With new investors behind us, we are rebuilding Shoprite to be more local, culturally relevant, more affordable, and more resilient. We are coming back bigger and stronger to serve Nigerian customers better than ever before.”

The company said the old model of large, import-heavy outlets was unsustainable. Its new strategy will focus on smaller stores, over 80 per cent local sourcing, affordable private-label products, and energy and cost efficiency.