Our extensive supply chain gives us a competitive advantage that is underpinned by resilience, agility, responsibility, and partnerships that help us serve customers better. 

Operational and supply chain efficiency play a critical role in ensuring our products remain affordable and accessible, while, at the same time, reducing our environmental impact. Our continued investment in technologically enabled systems and infrastructure ensures we maintain and enhance efficiencies throughout our supply chain. 

Our supply chain has been designed to meet the demands of our expanding network - improving efficiencies, enabling business growth, minimising waste, mitigating risk, and advancing our overall centralisation levels. By expanding, adapting, and securing our supply chain, we continue to enhance its resilience and agility to serve our customers’ growing needs. 

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RIVERFIELDS DC FACT SHEET
meal 29
DISTRIBUTION CENTRES

 

* December 2024

medical 103 925
EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS GET HEALTH AND SAFTY TRAINING

 

truck 35 058
HOURS OF DRIVER TRAINING

 

* FY2024

An infographic showing Shoprite Holdings supply chain process

Our focus areas

Diligently managing our supply chain includes planning, forecasting, procurement, warehousing, and distribution.

We manage efficiencies by focusing on:

  • Building a resilient supply chain
  • Improving and managing systems and processes 
  • Transparency and accountability
  • Health and Safety

Building and maintaining a resilient supply chain keeps our business operations running smoothly. We do this through:

  • Local supplier support

    • We support local suppliers wherever possible as this allows us to contribute to local economies and develop local and small suppliers while reducing our environmental impact. Our objective is to promote local suppliers and SMMEs to help them grow into large-scale providers.

  • Managing supply chain challenges

    • A high level of proactive engagement and collaboration exists in our supply chain, from our suppliers to our stores, which supports us in managing crises. Exercising a high level of control over our supply chain allows us to rapidly implement changes, when necessary, which is how we remain agile and resilient.

  • Diversifying our supply chain

    • The volumes and range of products we need to procure necessitate that we work with a wide variety of suppliers, from large multinational companies to SMMEs. In a changing climate, increasing adaptability through diversification is essential in building a resilient supply chain.  

 

Operating efficiently is part of our DNA. To uphold this sentiment in all supply chain operations, we aim to:

  • Maintain our distribution network efficiency

Our extensive DC network brings us closer to a wide variety of suppliers and ensures our DCs are closer to our stores. By reducing the distance travelled from supplier to DC and DC to store, we have developed the shortest and most responsive supply chain in South Africa. 

We’ve also implemented ways to address the impact of loadshedding on our DCs and can generate electricity on-site to keep operations going.  

  • Improve forecasting and replenishment 

We constantly invest in software to improve operations to meet our customers’ expectations, minimise waste on fresh, short shelf-life products, and manage inventory more effectively. Our AI-enabled forecasting and replenishment tools have improved our replenishment process through automation. These technologies, combined with our large product development and food technology team, mean our customers always have access to quality, fresher-for-longer food products and better on-shelf availability. 

  • Grow shares in premium and fresh food

To increase the resilience of our fresh produce via our fruit and vegetable procurement and distribution (Freshmark) supply chain, we’ve shared our knowledge with farmers in across Africa to equip them to grow world-class produce.  

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Beyond minimising our own impact, we work with suppliers to improve the overall social and environmental impact of our supply chain.

  • Supplier engagement on social and environmental issues

    • We manage all facets of our supply chain to reduce our environmental footprint. Our efforts include reducing food waste, using more sustainable packaging, and fighting climate change. The Group was the only African company to earn a place on the CDP FY 2022 Supplier Engagement Leaderboard for taking action to measure and reduce climate risk within our supply chain.

    Our supplier code of conduct covers a range of social and environmental issues and prospective suppliers need to commit to it. They increasingly support initiatives in responsible sourcing and sustainable packaging, and are eager to assist the beneficiaries of many of our CSI programmes. We conduct an annual Supplier Sustainability Survey to help us understand our suppliers’ sustainability profiles to reduce and mitigate risks (where possible).

We are committed to creating a safe, healthy work environment across our facilities. Our safety management is stringent, and we provide essential care services such as Occupational Health, an employee wellness programme, and online learning and support resources to raise awareness.

Across the Group, nurturing a strong safety culture is a cornerstone of our preventive strategy. Our approach includes actively tracking and analysing inspections, the efficacy of training and the effectiveness of safety controls. We use a digital risk management platform to assess and manage health, safety, and compliance risks. It’s used to identify hazards, systematically enforce controls to prevent incidents, and centralise health and safety records. 

  • To strengthen safety in our DCs, we have started implementing a behaviour-based safety programme to embed safety principles. These programmes focus on education to prevent accidents and on learning from past incidents. 
  • The safety of our truck drivers is another priority for the Group. We continue to strengthen our efforts, which include comprehensive defensive driving training and fleet maintenance. 
  • So is the safety of our Checkers Sixty60 drivers for whom we have implemented comprehensive safety measures targeting asset, driver and system controls.