The Lewis Group opened 58 new stores in its 2025 financial year, which was the highest number of shares ever that the group opened in one year. These included 36 new Real Beds outlets.
Image: Simphiwe Mbokazi/Independent Newspapers
Lewis Group reported strong credit sales growth from its furniture, home appliance, and bedding stores, expanding margins, a good quality of debtor's portfolio, and 58 new stores opened during the year to March 31, 2026.
The results released Thursday appeared to be well received by the market, as Lewis’ share price increased 5.84% to R88.20 on the JSE in the morning. A year ago, the share was trading at R82.80.
Headline earnings increased by 18.4% to R909.4 million. The JSE-listed Southern Africa retail group increased its total dividend by 12.1% to 897 cents a share, and the return on equity strengthened further from 15.4% to 16.2%.
“The group continued to invest for longer-term growth by accelerating the expansion of its store footprint and growing the debtors’ book,” said CEO Johan Enslin, even as discretionary consumer spending remained constrained over the year.
The 58 new stores were the highest number of store openings in a single year by the group, and the store base increased to 976. This included 36 new outlets for the specialist bedding chain, Real Beds, which expanded its footprint to 52 stores.
Enslin said they plan to open 40 new stores in the 2027 financial year, including 25 traditional retail stores and 15 speciality bedding stores.
Over the past year, merchandise sales increased by 7.3% to R5.5 billion. Credit sales increased by 9.6% and accounted for 69.4% of total merchandise sales compared to 68% a year earlier. Sales in the stores outside South Africa, representing 15% of the store base, increased by 6.9% and accounted for 18.2% of group merchandise sales.
Total revenue passed the R10bn mark for the first time, increasing by 11.1% to R10.3bn. The group’s customer base increased by 11%, representing an additional 77,000 accounts. This was achieved through customer acquisition and retention strategies and positioned the group for further credit sales growth.
Other revenue, consisting of interest income and ancillary services as well as insurance, benefited from strong credit sales growth in recent years and increased by 15.7%.
Satisfactory paying customers stood at 82.6%, slightly lower than 83.5% in 2025, and the collection rate stood at 78.1% from 78.9% in 2025.
The gross profit margin strengthened by 30 basis points to 43.7%, and the operating margin expanded by 110 basis points to 23.8%, with operating profit increasing by 12.8% to R1.3bn.
The debtors’ book grew by 15.2% to R9.2bn as the credit customer base increased by 11% through effective customer acquisition and retention strategies. The quality of the debtors’ portfolio remains sound, with satisfactory paying customers at 82.6% (2025: 83.5%) and the collection rate at 78.1% (2025: 78.9%).
Enslin said consumer spending will be impacted by inflationary pressures owing to higher fuel and transport costs resulting from the record fuel prices amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“Despite the uncertain economic environment, the group remains well positioned to gain market share. We will continue to focus on affordability, maintaining good stock availability, and introducing new exclusive merchandise ranges to support future growth,” he said.
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