Mr Price has already shut four of its five Nigerian stores and expects to close the last one soon.
Mr Price Group plans to close its Nigerian business in favour of a stronger focus on its home market in South Africa.
“We are really going to focus on South Africa in a more concentrated way,” Mr Price CFO Mark Stirton said in a presentation.
He added that the company expects “a lot of distress among retail peers” in South Africa, which is gradually emerging from a lockdown that has devastated the economy.
According to Mr Price CEO Mark Blair, the company has already shuttered four of its five Nigerian stores and expects to close the last one in the coming months. This makes Nigeria the third country that the retailer has recently excited after Australia and Poland last year.
“Quite frankly, I’m not prepared to invest any further whether it’s investment in time or in money into a country that is volatile as it is,” Mark Blair said. “In the early days we were making money, but now we just came up against too many roadblocks, whether it’s getting the money out, etc.”
