Pepkor, a serious South African retailer, now sells eight out of each ten pay as you go telephones within the nation, up from seven final 12 months, based on its interim monetary outcomes for the six months ending March 2025, launched on Tuesday. The retailer’s pay as you go telephone gross sales rose 17% in the identical interval, as demand for reasonably priced cellular units surged.
Pepkor shops are well-known for his or her affordability, catering to round 34.3 million low-income earners – about 63.5% of South Africa’s inhabitants. The group claims to be utilizing its expansive community of about 5,975 shops throughout the nation as a strong distribution channel for pay as you go cellphones, aiming for a 50.5 million share of smartphones. Pepkor plans to open between 250 and 300 new shops in 2025, additional increasing its attain in pay as you go cellphone distribution.
In the course of the six months main as much as March 2025, Pepkor bought 6.8 million pay as you go telephones, a 17% improve from the earlier interval. Smartphone adoption has risen because the group continues to make units extra reasonably priced, with gross sales climbing to 65% of all handsets bought, up from 60% within the earlier interval.
The energetic SIM card base elevated from 29- 30 million, pushed by the variety of SIM playing cards bought by the group, and underpins ongoing income.
FoneYam, the group’s newly developed mobile handset rental service, launched in 2024 and designed to make smartphones reasonably priced for purchasers, continued to develop strongly. Pepkor says energetic prospects reached 1.5 million by the tip of the interval. Month-to-month activations averaged 165,000 over the interval, from 120,000.
Pepkor reported a 12.4% rise in half-year earnings, whereas income grew 12.8%, supported by improved product availability and the robust progress in mobile connectivity.
Group income grew by 12.8% to R48.8 billion (about $2.73 billion), with the clothes and normal merchandise section rising income by 9.5% to R34.5 billion ($1.93 billion), and the furnishings, home equipment, and electronics section up by 9.1% to R6.5 billion ($364 million). Its fintech enterprise elevated income by 34.5% to R7.9-billion ($442.8 million), pushed by 67.3% progress in monetary companies.