Boxer vs. The Big Boys: How PnP’s star child is winning the deflation war

Key topics:Boxer reports -1.0% deflation, beating Shoprite and Woolworths.Double-digit growth fuels Pick n Pay’s market-leading performance.Boxer drives loyalty and market share through aggressive pricing strategy..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Alec Hogg.If you want to understand the brutality of the South African grocery war, look no further than the inflation numbers released this week.For months, we’ve watched Shoprite’s Pieter Engelbrecht masterfully squeeze inflation out of the system to boost volumes. His team’s update for the six months to December 2025 showed internal inflation at a mere 0.7%, with the Usave division actually running at -0.7% - that’s deflation. It was a shot across the bow of the entire industry: cut prices or lose customers.Today, Boxer didn't just return fire; it escalated the conflict.In its trading update for the 48 weeks to February 1, Boxer revealed internal deflation of-1.0%, deeper than Usave (-0.7%) and significantly lower than Woolworths Food, which is still raising prices by around 4.6%.The strategy is clear: Like Shoprite, Boxer using the current environment to buy loyalty through price. And it’s working..The Growth Gap.While competitors are scratching for single-digit growth, Boxer is shooting the lights out with a double-digit top-line growth. Turnover for the full 48-week period is up 11.9%. Even with the "soft patch" in November that seemed to hit everyone (Shoprite also flagged a deflationary drag in late 2025), Boxer reported growth in its most recent 22-weeks of 9.8% - still outpacing Shoprite’s RSA supermarket growth of 7.1%.More to the point, compare Boxer’s like-for-like sales of 2.4% (in the recent period) to the broader market. When stripping out new stores, growth is hard to find. Yet Boxer is achieving this holy grail by taking market share directly from competitors who can’t match its pricing power..The Pick n Pay Lifeline.For Pick n Pay, today’s numbers are a relief, but also highlight a stark dependency.Since listing Boxer separately, Pick n Pay has retained a stake of more than 60% and control. This wasn't just sentimental; it was strategic. Boxer is the group’s growth engine. While the core Pick n Pay supermarket business trudges through a long and painful turnaround under Sean Summers, Boxer is the sprinter keeping the group’s valuation respectable.With PnP’s share price still sensitive to the success of its "Sum of the Parts" story, Boxer’s ability to consistently beat Shoprite’s Usave at its own game is critical. Today’s update confirms Team Summers’ "Star Child" hasn't lost its shine—even if it has to deflate prices to keep it.

Boxer vs. The Big Boys: How PnP’s star child is winning the deflation war

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