Choppies� African offensive: Seven countries and still counting

BusinessWeek: Your recent results show continued growth in revenues and footfall but net profits seem to continue weakening.  Is this part of the plan?

Ottapathu: The continued  rise in revenues and footfall is a clear indication of our ability to operate in the African market where we have managed to establish footprint in seven countries in a short space of time. The group operates predominantly in commodity dependent markets, and despite the difficult trading circumstances, Choppies performed well in the last financial year.  Balanced growth in revenue and gross profit was achieved. Our revenues for the year ended June 2017 jumped 20% to almost P9 billion and gross profit rose 30%.  Net profit, however, dipped 9.5% to P77 million, but this is merely the drag-on effect of our aggressive expansion drive.