South Africa, Sept. 18 -- Large supermarkets and informal traditional trade outlets (spazas, unbranded retail) continue to dominate the South African market in terms of sales contribution. Manufacturers are correctly prioritising the formal large grocery sector - including Spar, Shoprite Group, Pick n Pay and Woolworths - while concurrently working to unlock revenue from the informal trade.

Both of these focus areas are difficult, complex, and costly to execute.

However, there is a channel that has shown consistent year-on-year growth in both in-store sales value and volume - and a notable increase in footprint (14.5% between 2019 and 2023, adding 582 new forecourts during this time). According to the recent Trade Intelligence Forecourt...