Meikles Limited, the Zimbabwean retailer that is Pick n Pay’s partner in the country, has reported a 21% increase in revenue in inflation adjusted terms in its latest quarterly report to the end of June. The increase is largely due to largely of strong growth in its supermarkets division (TM Pick n Pay, the joint venture with Pick n Pay).

Sales volumes in its supermarkets increased by 21% the three months to end June 2021, relative to the same period in 2020, when Zimbabwe had a strict lockdown designed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In early August, the company said that TM Pick n Pay sales for the year to March 2021 had dropped by 21% due to COVID-19 restrictions on trading times during the second half of its financial year.

Meikles has also revealed that its hospitality business unit has seen room occupancy for the hotel segment up 11%, partly because of a period of no occupancy during the same period last year. The group is still looking for a return to pre-COVID-levels of international tourist numbers. In 2020 Meikles sold its flagship hotel asset, the Meikles Hotel in Harare, to the UAE’s Albwardy Investments for a US$20m. Its main hotel asset is now the Victoria Falls Hotel, where Meikles is hoping that the rollout of the Zimbabwe’s vaccination programme will have a positive effect on hotel stays.

Meikles has also confirmed its intention to unbundle its agricultural business, Tanganda Tea Company, and list it separately on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE).

Meikles had said that its performance has been improved by declining inflation compared to the same period in 2020, as well as a stabilisation of the exchange currency rate following the reintroduction of the auction system by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in June 2020. This has helped increase availability of fx through formal channels.