Choppies pays hefty price for expansion

Choppies Enterprises continued with its expansion strategy into the rest of Africa in the year to end June, but the moves into new territories came with a more than 50 percent cost to the company's earnings.

It reported headline earnings per share of 7.25 thebe in the period under review, down from 16.92 thebe a year earlier.

Turnover however increased 24 percent to 7.4 billion pula, while profit rose 12 percent to 1.44 billion pula.

CEO Ramachandran Ottapathu said Choppies's full year performance had been affected by pre-operative expenses in Zambia and Kenya. He said the company had also incurred losses in Zimbabwe due to depressed economic conditions.