The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
DIVERSIFIED retail group, OK Zimbabwe Limited says it will roll out more pharmacies in various branches during the last quarter of 2023, after successfully opening its first in-store pharmacy in Harare.
The pharmacy was opened in Glen View, trading under the Alowell Pharmacy brand during the third quarter ended 31 December 2022. In a trading update for the period under review, the company said as part of its business strategic projects, it also completed the acquisition of Food Lover’s Market franchise stores.
“Despite the challenging environment, the group continues investing in volume growth strategies embedded in various strategic projects which have a high potential to contribute to growth and improve the overall business performance in the last quarter of F23 and the coming financial years.
“The business completed the acquisition of Food Lover’s Market franchise stores from Talwant Trading (Private) Limited and its subsidiaries. Three stores namely Food Lover’s Market Avondale, Borrowdale and Bulawayo were added to the OK Zimbabwe Limited stable and their performance will be included in the final quarter of the group’s financial year,” it said.
Food Lover’s Market
OK Zimbabwe said the relatively stable but fragile operating environment remains subject to frequent policy changes, while they welcome the reduction in interest rates pronounced by monetary authorities.
The company said they also appreciated the envisaged further liberalisation of the willing buyer willing seller foreign currency management system.
“We can only urge the authorities to provide more incentives for productive sectors to invest in growth projects and stave off current operational cost increases necessitated by power shortages and exorbitant fuel costs.”
OK Zimbabwe said the company’s revenue grew by 18,3 percent for the quarter and 28,4 percent for the nine months in inflation adjusted terms compared to growth of 320,4 percent and 315,8 percent for the quarter and nine months to December 2022 respectively in historical cost terms. It said profit margins were consistent with prior year and in line with the Group’s plans for the current year.
“The country’s exchange rates relatively stabilised during the third quarter pursuant to monetary policy interventions. Resultantly, forex collections improved in direct comparison to the prior quarter.”
OK Zimbabwe said the monthly inflation rates showed signs of slowing down towards the end of the quarter as measures instituted by fiscal and monetary authorities began to bear fruit, while liquidity constraints were witnessed in the last three months of 2022 resulting in dampened consumer demand.
However, the company said excessive power outages severely affected business operations and resulted in heavy reliance on generators and other alternative power sources, thereby compromising the ease of doing business and increasing operational costs.
In terms of volume performance, it said the sales volumes decreased by 11,33 percent for the quarter and 9,3 percent for the nine months to December 2022 compared to the prior year driven by declining consumer spending power.
The Group embarked on a volume recovery plan which resulted in a growth of three percent being recorded for the month of December 2022 compared to the prior year.
