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IOL News
26-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Pick n Play: Retail giant unveils sizzling new App to swipe back market share
South Africa's second-largest retailer, Pick n Pay, has reached its most significant milestone yet as it continues to try grab market share from rivals Shoprite and Woolworths. South Africa's second-largest retailer, Pick n Pay, has reached its most significant milestone yet as it continues to try grab market share from rivals Shoprite and Woolworths. The loss-making company is in the midst of a turnaround strategy, which targets operational and financial recovery. In releasing its results for the 53 weeks to March 2, it said that its headline loss – a key metric for analysts – improved from minus 172.3c to negative 61.54c. As part of its digital focus, it has launched a new app that pulls together its on-demand delivery service asap!, Smart Shopper loyalty programme, and value-added services into a single, next-generation platform. 'This new app is the biggest moment for Pick n Pay Online since we launched asap! in 2020' said Enrico Ferigolli, retail executive of Online at Pick n Pay on Monday, noting that this is the culmination of a four-year journey. 'Pick n Pay remains focused on innovation, adaptability and income diversification through its popular Smart Shopper programme, growing Retail Media capability, and omnichannel platforms, while expanding value-added services revenue,' it said in a statement to investors on Monday morning. Pick n Pay's new app – 'Pick n Pay asap! and Smart Shopper' – works off an AI platform and has a new user experience that targets making consumers' lives easier when they shop, save through Smart Shopper, and get their groceries delivered. These improvements are expected to drive strong growth in the coming year. The integration of AI means that it will learn from customers' shopping behaviour, offering smarter product suggestions and streamlining the browsing experience. 'Our AI helps customers find what they need faster or discover products they'll love,' said Ferigolli. The original asap! app will remain live until the end of September 2025, before the new app becomes the primary one. Despite making a loss, at Group level, with Pick n Pay as a segment yet to return to profitability, it noted in its annual results that its Pick n Pay's Online business, primarily asap! and PnP groceries on the Mr D app, continues to perform 'strongly'. Online retail sales for the 53 weeks to March 2 grew 48.7% year-on-year, with on-demand growing at 60%. 'Thanks to scale gains, the Online business is now profitable on a fully costed basis,' it said. In a statement to shareholders, the group said that 'while much has been achieved, the challenge to return Pick n Pay to a profitable and future-fit business remains very real'. It added that 'the path back to break even, profitability and ultimately long-term sustainable success is clear; and will be executed on in a considered and methodical manner'. CEO Sean Summers, brought out of retirement to fix the entity, said 'we have started to give much-needed attention to our core Pick n Pay supermarkets and we are pleased to see the early results in reporting positive like-for-like sales growth, notwithstanding the sustained pace of new store openings by our competitors in a restrained and competitive market'. However, getting its Pick n Pay unit right will take longer than expected as it's focusing on building 'retail muscle memory for long-term success'. It now expects this segment will reach breakeven in the 2028 financial year. Summers' contract has been extended to the end of the 2028 financial year. Its new app offers a basket limit of 45 items, access to over 35,000 products, and has grown to 600 locations across South Africa. In addition to the new app, – its online shopping portal – will relaunch with the asap! on-demand service rolling out from June, with streamlined logistics allowing the company to lower the delivery fee to just R35. 'This is just the beginning. In the coming months, we'll introduce even more exciting features to make shopping Pick n Pay easier and launch features to resolve customer queries faster, improving the overall delivery experience,' said Ferigolli. New features on the app, built for iOS and Android, include being able to select their preferred store, load multiple payment cards, place multiple orders at once, schedule deliveries outside of the standard one-hour window, and track orders. Customers can now earn and spend Smart Shopper points with every order, and soon, they'll be able to redeem personalised discounts and Club benefits. IOL
Irish Times
09-05-2025
- Irish Times
Hotel manager fired for bullying gay colleague wins compensation for lack of appeal
A hotel night manager sacked for bullying a gay colleague has won €3,000 for unfair dismissal because his employer missed an email from him attempting to appeal his firing. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has found the hotel operator, Cantarini Limited 'acted reasonably' by sacking the worker, Omar Mohammed Osman – but breached the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 when it missed his email asking to exercise his right of appeal, and failed to respond. Mr Osman, who was a night manager at the City Quay aparthotel in Dublin city Centre, was sacked on foot of findings that he was bullying a gay colleague, Mr D, because of his sexuality. However, Mr Osman argued that he was accused of homophobia in a 'thinly veiled attempt to penalise him' for raising concerns about how he was being treated by managers. READ MORE Mr D had complained that Mr Osman called him 'a big homosexual' and 'princess', the WRC noted. Mr D further alleged that Mr Osman called him by a nickname that 'sounded like he was being referred to as an animal' – as well as whistling at him and mocking his accent. Mr Osman's evidence to the WRC was that he has 'no issue with homosexuals' and is 'not homophobic', the adjudicator hearing the case noted. He stated that he couldn't have whistled at his former colleague, because he did not 'know how to whistle'. He also told the tribunal that when he used the word 'princess', he had been referring to a female colleague, the decision recorded. His position was that none of the allegations made against him by Mr D were true. The tribunal was told that before Mr D's complaint, Mr Osman had received a written warning by his manager for 'letting the team down' by leaving work around 30 minutes into a shift in December 2023. However, Mr Osman complained to the company that his line manager and other staff had been 'in the back office when they should have been working' and that the manager was 'shouting and cursing' at him, the tribunal heard. The tribunal heard that Mr Osman emailed the company's HR manager complaining of 'bullying' from a night duty team leader, Mr L, on March 14th, 2024, two days before he was interviewed for the first time in connection with the harassment complaint against him. He formalised the grievance later in the month, before being interviewed again in connection with the dignity at work investigation. Five days later, the disciplinary process concluded with findings that Mr Osman had been 'bullying and harassing a colleague in relation to their sexual orientation and race', and he was dismissed. After the matter was heard by the WRC in January, Mr Osman's legal team furnished the WRC with an email he had sent asking to appeal the dismissal. The respondent's head of human resources, Victoria Scrase, told the WRC there was no response because the person Mr Osman had written to had themselves left the company four days after Mr Osman's sacking. Mr Osman's position was that it was 'unfair to investigate a complaint made about him when he had been complaining for six months about how he was treated and nothing had been done'. His barrister, Joseph Bradley BL, instructed by Melissa Wynne of Ormonde Solicitors, submitted that his client had been subjected to 'aggressive and violent outbursts at work' and had been met with a 'dismissive' stance when he first complained in October 2023. 'He was accused of homophobia, in a thinly veiled attempt to penalise him for raising concerns about how he was treated by managers,' Mr Bradley submitted. Adjudicator Catherine Byrne wrote in her decision that even at the hearing before the WRC, Mr Osman seemed to be 'unaffected by the possibility that he offended his colleague'. She did not accept his explanation for his use of the word 'princess', she wrote. Will DoorDash takeover of Deliveroo mean better pay and conditions for gig economy workers? Listen | 28:33 'A simple acknowledgment of the effect that his behaviour had on his colleague may have made a difference and could have avoided his dismissal,' Ms Byrne added. She said she could see no alternative except to find the company was 'reasonable' to dismiss Mr Osman, a worker she wrote was 'unable to see the effect of his behaviour… and apologise for the distress he had caused'. 'It is very regrettable that he didn't seek some wise counsel before he engaged in the disciplinary procedure that ended with his dismissal,' she added. However, she concluded that because the company did not respond to an email from Mr Osman seeking to exercise his right of appeal, the dismissal was unfair because of this 'procedural failure'. Ms Byrne rejected further claims of penalisation in breach of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 by Mr Osman. Mr Osman's position was that he was only accused of homophobia and subjected to disciplinary action as a reaction to complaining about Mr L. Ms Byrne concluded that that Mr Osman had played a part in the conflict among staff and that his grievances were addressed by management. He 'was attempting to distract attention' from Mr D's complaint against him when he raised his grievances in March 2024, she added.
