Woolworths vs Pick n Pay vs Checkers

Retail group Pick n Pay has embarked on a major overhaul of its brand positioning in South Africa, with the group announcing that it will split its Pick n Pay brand across two markets.

The Pick n Pay brand will shift to a more premium brand, while another brand – dubbed “Project Red” – will take up position in the middle market.

To facilitate this shift, the group recently launched a new premium range under its private label, targeting customers in its newly revamped middle to top-end stores.

The Crafted Collection by PnP offers a “premium taste intertwined with affordability”, according to Pick n Pay, with an initial offering of 70 products in store, while a further 100 products are expected by the end of the year.

For now, the range focuses on food and grocery items, but will soon extend to other categories, the retailer said.

Pick n Pay’s Crafted Collection puts the retailer squarely in the space dominated by Woolworths Food, which offers premium products, often at a much higher price range than competitors.

However, it is not the first ‘mid market’ retailer to do so. Over the last few years, Checkers has made a deliberate push into the higher LSM market, through its FreshX stores. The Shoprite-owned retail brand also launched its own premium range, called Feast and Forage, in 2021.

While Crafted Collection marks Pick n Pay’s entry into Woolworths’ market space, it’s clear from the brand’s package designs that it is also directly competing with Checkers’ offering.

BusinessTech looked at common items available across all three brands to see how closely they compare.

For many segments, there is simply no way to directly compare products as each brand has its own ‘version’ of the luxury items. Package sizes differ, and the gourmet aspect of the items makes each offering uniquely positioned.

However, wherever the same labels were used (ie, aged balsamic) or similar items were available in the same sizes (ie, specialist 150g cheeses) around the same price point, they were selected for comparison.

Because of these discrepancies, however, direct comparisons cannot be made, while prices have been included for informational purposes only.

The items we looked at include:

Aged balsamic vinegar

Various cheeses

Special teas

Kalamata olives

Oat crunchies

Extra virgin olive oil

‘Homestyle’ rusks

Premium sauces

White hot chocolate

Pick n Pay vs Woolworths

From the above, it’s clear that Crafted Collection is more closely tied to Forage and Feast in overall looks. However, where it competes more directly with Woolworths is in fresh produce – something that Checkers’ brand does not move into.

We looked at the few items where there were strong similarities between Crafted Collection and Woolworths Food in the fresh produce segment: