Women are the “backbone” of the Shoprite story

This Women’s Month the Shoprite Group is celebrating its women partners by unveiling the women-headed creches it has partnered with and lauding its female suppliers and employees that form the backbone of its operations.

Africa’s biggest retailer empowers women leading early childhood development (ECD) centres through much-needed training, structural upgrades to schools and access to nutritional meals for learners. This strategy is in line with its efforts to offer greater support to female community champions, and is in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call to end poverty by educating poor children in early childhood.

These partnerships results not only in transformation through the education of the poorest and the most vulnerable, it sees artisans from the community employed for the refurbishments and extends the skills training to facilitators in the surrounding ECDs.

This programme will be implemented throughout the country and to date six ECDs in five provinces have been transformed as a result of it.

Creating space in the supply chain

The Shoprite Group is further focused on increasing the number of women-owned businesses that supply our stores.

Since the beginning of this year, we increased expenditure with black women-owned business by 148%. The Group anticipates the pace of transformation of its value chain to pick up over the next two years.

One such supplier is Wadea Jappie, who initially only supplied 20 - 30 bunches of dhanya to Shoprite three times week. These days she supplies 800 - 900 bunches per day and in the last financial year, she delivered a staggering three tons of produce.

Surya Singh recently started supplying the coffee shops in 120 Checkers stores with golden lattes, made from tumeric. She is proof that one is never too old to realise one’s dreams: so launched her company, Turmeric Tonic, at the age of 70.