The number of deliveries made by Checkers Sixty60, the on-demand grocery delivery platform owned by Shoprite Holdings, grew sales by 58% in the 52 weeks to 30 June 2024.

The figure was revealed in Shoprite Holdings’ annual financial results for the period, released on Tuesday.

The number of stores used to fulfil Sixty60 orders was expanded to 539, up from 466 a year ago.

Shoprite claimed 11 681 new jobs have been created to support its digital ecosystem since the launch of Sixty60.

Checkers has also improved its logistics capacity as evidenced by improvements in the speed of its delivery service.

In the 2022 financial year, the average Sixty60 delivery time was 42 minutes. This time was reduced by six minutes in 2023 to 36 minutes. In 2024, the average Sixty60 delivery took just 33 minutes, with 94% of all orders being delivered within an hour.

Later this month, Checkers Sixty60 will launch a new app that combines grocery deliveries with larger household goods and accessories as well as alcohol – all delivered within 60 minutes.

Read: Discovery Vitality ditches Pick n Pay for Checkers

Shoprite Holdings’ full-year headline earnings rose by 7.2% on double-digit sales growth. Headline earnings per share from continuing operations rose to R12.50, up from R11.66 a year ago. It declared a final dividend of 445 cents per share. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media, with additional reporting © 2024 Reuters