SOUTH Africa’s biggest food retailer Shoprite Group has partnered with RTT Group, Checkers’ Sixty60 logistics partner, to create a joint venture company that aims to beef up its e-commerce offering and add to the more than 4 000 jobs already created by Sixty60, its online delivery app.
The joint venture partnership between Shoprite and RTT comes as Covid-19 has accelerated online shopping with more people preferring to shop from the comfort of their homes.
Shoprite said yesterday it would hold a 50 percent interest for an undisclosed sum in the joint venture and the joint venture protects the learnings, technology and intellectual property created by Checkers Sixty60 to date while facilitating future innovation and development of the group’s last mile logistics.
Shoprite Group chief executive Pieter Engelbrecht said the transaction was in line with the group’s digital strategy.
“Owning the last mile home delivery aspect of our Sixty60 service is an important part of building out our digital ecosystem for customers.
“We consider the combined capability we have built with RTT to be a critical competitive advantage and key to Sixty60’s rapid growth. This RTT On-Demand joint venture will allow the group the opportunity to continue enhancing our order fulfilment and lastmile delivery capabilities while giving us the opportunity to grow our precision retailing efforts for our customers,” said Engelbrecht.
As part of the transaction terms Checkers Sixty60, Shoprite Checkers’ existing on-demand delivery service, will continue to use RTT On-demand as its delivery partner.
RTT Group chief executive Gavin Rimmer said RTT’s continued relationship with the Shoprite Group brought sustainable scale, capability and technology development to RTT’s e-commerce fulfilment plans.
“It also provides customers with access to an extensive geographic network and range of service options for their on-demand needs,” Rimmer said.
The Shoprite group said the creation of this joint venture company was significant in terms of the evolution of Shoprite’s strategic roadmap specifically where it pertained to on-demand and e-Commerce.
Engelbrecht added: “We anticipate this transaction will add to the more than 4 000 jobs already created by Sixty60 as we continue to grow in the communities in which we operate. The benefits arising from formalising this relationship with RTT On-Demand should extend beyond our customers to also include our employees, suppliers and shareholders and we are incredibly pleased to be moving forward with our e-commerce plans on this basis.”
Checkers Sixty60 is South Africa’s number one delivery app with more than 2 million app downloads. The on-demand grocery delivery app operates nationwide from 233 stores, which serve as micro-fulfilment centres as at the end of September.
Retailers have been catering for shoppers who prefer shopping from their mobile devices. Massmart, owner of Game, Builders Warehouse and Makro stores, in October announced the acquisition of an 87.5 percent stake in OneCart to enhance its strategy of meeting customers where they want to be met.
OneCart is a fast-moving consumer goods marketplace and logistics platform, which partners with leading retailers in South Africa.
dineo.faku@inl.co.za
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