Boxer Retail's share price rises 5% following strong trading performance

Boxer Retail’s share price shot up 5% on the JSE Monday morning after it said strong trading in the last two months of its 26-week period to August 31 had boosted a four-month performance that was already ahead of the previous year.

Boxer Retail increased like–for-like sales by 5.3% for the 26 weeks to end-August, 2025.

The discount supermarket chain which listed on the JSE at the end of November last year, said overall turnover for the 26 weeks was up 13.9%. Internal food inflation for the period was -0.7%, as measured on a volume-held-constant basis.

The latest trading update is more positive from the operational report provided in July, where Boxer’s management said that for the 17-week period to June 29, turnover grew 12.1% and 3.9% on a like-for-like basis, which at the time, represented a positive trend when compared with the 9% turnover and 3.7% like-for-like growth achieved in the second half of the 2025 financial year.

The share price was seen trading at R67.06 at midday Monday, slightly higher than the R63.01 that it traded at last November. 

Boxer had warned in May already that it expected to report a more than 20% decline in earnings per share (EPS) and headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the first half of its 2026 financial year.

This decline however was purely the result of the chosen IPO structure, which resulted in a substantial increase in the share count in November 2024, and was not a reflection of operational performance.

Boxer said Monday that headline earnings, which reflected the strong operational performance, were now expected to increase by between 0% and 9% for the 26-week period, to a range of between R492 million and R539m. The strong trading results were also able to partially offset the previously guided incremental costs associated with being a listed entity. 

The decline in the per share earnings metrics was due to a 51.1% increase in the average shares count from a restated 299.999 million for the first half of the 2025 financial year, to 453.290 million for the 2026 financial first half.

Consequently diluted headline earnings per share were expected to decline by between 28% and 34%, or to between 107.59 cents and 117.78 cents.                  

Earnings per share (EPS) were expected to decline by between 30% and 36%, to between 104.26 cents and 114.14 cents, from 163.67 cents at the end of the 2025 interim stage.

BUSINESS REPORT