OUR SOCIAL IMPACT

Wider social impact

Our business employs more than 70 000 people through our owned and franchise stores, on the African continent, providing them and their families with a secure and sustainable source of income and the opportunity to progress within the Group. As our store portfolio increases, we extend these benefits to more people and families in more communities. Many of our new jobs go to people, including recent matriculants, who were previously unemployed.

We plan to invest around R5 billion in capital expenditure over the next two years, bringing more stores and much needed jobs to more communities in the countries in which we trade. A new store in a local area often provides a catalyst for others to invest, multiplying the economic and social benefit.

We purchased around R40 billion worth of products from local South African producers and manufacturers in 2015. We believe this helps to sustain a workforce of around 250 000 people. This supply base will grow as our business grows, spreading investment, opportunity and employment around the country.

Empowering small black business

We are committed to small business development in the manufacturing and retail sector – particularly by empowering black- and women-owned businesses. A diverse supplier base is vital in ensuring we have the right range of products and a pipeline of innovation sufficient to meet customer needs. A locally focused supply base is an advantage in addressing long-term food security, and environmental and social challenges.

National impact, local focus

For us, social responsibility has always encompassed a range of activities, from upholding consumer rights through to working at a local level to uplift communities and individuals. In all our investments we strive to respond effectively to local and national needs.

A strong focus in recent years has been on enterprise development and job creation. Our principal partnerships are with non-governmental organisations and service providers, government departments, and companies that invest in the community initiatives.

In our previous integrated annual report we recorded R36.0 million devoted to various corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. This year, reflecting our improved financial performance, we devoted R44.6 million to CSR activities consistently above 5.0% of our profit for the period. Our investments aim to achieve a balance between contributions to smaller, more local initiatives, and larger, wider-impact initiatives that can benefit from our scale and leverage.

We have stores in the hearts of many communities, and seek to play a positive role wherever we have a presence. This can take various forms, including supporting local charities, volunteering, donating goods or services and helping local people during crises or emergencies. In the year reviewed, there were a number of key CSR projects where being part of the community helps the communities we serve.

• The Pick n Pay Pink Women’s Walks, which support the Pink Drive, a public benefit organisation (PBO) that provides free breast cancer screening and awareness education, has in the last three years had more than 80 000 participants, provided more than 9 000 free breast examinations and raised more than R2.2 million for this PBO.
• Our Smart Shopper loyalty programme, with over 8.9 million cards, has generated R2.2 million worth of points since inception which have been donated to charity by our customers.
• We are the biggest retail donor to the food security agency FoodBank SA. We donated more than R25.0 million worth of food to them during the year under review. Through our partnership, FoodBank SA has been able to provide food to more than 600 agencies across the country, which in turn feed over 40 000 people a day.
• Pick n Pay Clothing donated more than R1.8 million of clothing to The Clothing Bank, which trains and supports black women in running small informal clothing retail businesses in their communities.

Information contained in this report relates to Pick n Pay-owned stores only.