Shoprite : Sustainability Report 2021 (Print version)

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						BILIT

2021

SHOPRITE HOLDINGS LTD Sustainability Report 2021

Index to navigational icons

STAKEHOLDERS

Customers

Shareholders and financiers

Communities

Trade unions

Employees

Suppliers

Regulators

REFERENCE

Page

Website

GRI

King IV

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CONTENTS

1. About this report
2. CEO's foreword
3. Social and Ethics Committee Chairperson's report

1. Sustainability highlights

About us

08 Who we are

1. Purpose and values
2. Our approach to governance

1. Materiality

1. Risk management and compliance

1. Our position on key sustainability issues
2. Our alignment with legislation and best practice

1. Our contribution to South Africa's transformation
2. Our contribution to the United Nations SDGs

1. Sustainability Manager's message

1. Our response to COVID-19

Our material matters

30 Employees

38 Customer centricity

1. Supply chain resilience and sustainability

1. Socio-economiccontribution

1. Environmental stewardship

Appendices

1. Appendix 1: Compliance training
2. Appendix 2: GRI Index

80 Appendix 3: TCFD Index

84 Appendix 4: Key sustainability indicators

1. GHG emissions
2. Energy usage

85 Water usage

87 Abbreviations and acronyms

Report on Shoprite Holdings Ltd's sustainability approach over the

2021 financial year running to 4 July 2021. This report is best read in conjunction with Shoprite Holdings Ltd's Integrated Annual Report 2021.

For further information on this Sustainability Report, please contact the Sustainability team on [phone].

Website: https://www.shopriteholdings.co.za/sustainability.html

SHOPRITE HOLDINGS LTD Sustainability Report 2021

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ABOUT THIS REPORT

The Shoprite Group's 2021 Sustainability Report details the progress made in our sustainability journey in the past financial year, for the 53 weeks from 29 June 2020 to 4 July 2021. GRI 102-50

The Group has applied the principle of materiality in the identification of material issues, which influences our ability to create shared value. While our Integrated Annual Report is our main report to shareholders and reports on value creation, our Sustainability Report complements our Integrated Annual Report by providing further details on environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related material issues, to a broader range of stakeholders. To obtain a comprehensive overview of our business, strategies and performance, this report should be read with the 2021 Integrated Annual Report (IAR) and the 2021 Corporate Governance Report.

We report on sustainability-related issues annually

through our Sustainability Report. No material restatements have been made to the Shoprite Group's previous Sustainability Report published in October 2020. If you have any questions relating to this report or its contents, please contact our Sustainability team on [phone] or

https://www.shopriteholdings.co.za/contactus.html

To access more information on our sustainability efforts throughout the year, refer to our corporate website:

https://www.shopriteholdings.co.za/sustainability.html

GRI 102-48,102-51,102-52,102-53

Our progress on our sustainability journey is measured against various goals set out in our past Sustainability Reports.

The report outlines our ESG-related commitments and progress, in line with national and international frameworks, standards and goals, including:

• The King IV Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa, 2016 (King IVTM)
• The GRI Standards. This Sustainability Report has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards: Core option.

GRI Index, page 75		GRI 102-54

• The United Nations (UN) Global Compact (UNGC) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
• Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Task Force on Climate- related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) frameworks
  Frameworks, standards and goals, page 80

The report has been reviewed and approved by our Social and Ethics Committee and our Audit and Risk Committee in August 2021. The 2021 financial year figures used in this report have been verified through an internal audit process. Figures included refer to all operations except for our franchised businesses.

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CEO'S FOREWORD

The year under review once again posed challenges, especially as the impact of COVID-19 continued to affect our operations as well as our stakeholders. We did not let these challenges stand in the way of delivering on our affordability promise or in making progress against our sustainability commitments. Being an affordable and sustainable retailer is not an obstacle to success; it is an opportunity to live our purpose and align our strategy with the needs of our stakeholders. Over four decades of retail industry experience has proven this,

while our performance has demonstrated that the approach makes business sense.

Our people are at the core of our operations and through teamwork they enable our sustainability plans and ambitions. As such, their wellbeing and development are our top priority. Through our training programmes, we equip them with the knowledge and skills to support their career development, as well as enabling them to make our Group more sustainable. During these challenging times we are extremely proud to have secured our employees' jobs within the Group, even when some of our stores were closed for parts of the year. By making these kinds of decisions we showed our commitment towards our employees, who have remained loyal to us in turn. We know that we can do our best when we are supported by the best.

We cannot make a meaningful difference without the collaboration and support of our various stakeholders. Increasingly, our investors are aware of the importance of environmental, social and governance issues

in our ability to create shared value. In our stores, our customers embrace the plant-based and waste reduction initiatives we offer to them. In our supply chain, our suppliers support the job opportunities and sustainable initiatives we introduce, as we welcome the new opportunities they bring to the table.

The communities we work in value our continued presence and assistance. We support food security through surplus food donations and community food gardens. We are the first responders when a crisis hits, and support children in the crucial early childhood development (ECD) phase of their lives.

Our involvement with these diverse stakeholder groups is critical to our own success, as it is undeniably linked to theirs.

The impact of unemployment - now at 32.6% as of 1 June 2021 - has been highlighted as the country struggles within a depressed economic environment. With the youth unemployment rate higher at 46.3%, we continued our focus on youth skills development through our Retail Readiness and Yes For Youth programmes. We have also increased our investment in key small and medium enterprises (SME) through our investment in Thuthuka Nathi Ventures and continue to provide market access opportunities to SMEs through our supply chain. This holistic approach to

transformation in our operations supports our industry-leading employment equity and internal promotion practices in South Africa.

Sadly, many people in our countries of operation are forced to focus on survival, especially in these challenging times. While we support them through the affordability and accessibility of our products and by building community-level resilience through our various corporate social investment (CSI) programmes, our ambition extends beyond helping them to survive. We want our business to enable people to thrive. While we cannot address systemic issues such as unemployment and food security alone, we know we must play our part in elevating individuals and communities beyond a focus on survival through shared value creation for all our stakeholders.

Many of the challenges that communities face are linked to climate change. We now know how sudden and intense the impact of a global crisis can be, as we have experienced through the COVID-19 pandemic and remain resolute in playing our role to address climate change. This year we advanced our sustainability-related commitments by setting science-based targets in response to climate change and by articulating our position on biodiversity. Our Sustainability team also improved our disclosure of sustainability-related information through better GRI alignment and reporting disclosures.

I thank every employee who has played a part in developing and supporting the programmes detailed in this report. Without their passion and commitment, the Group would neither succeed nor navigate the complexity of maximising the positive impact we have on the lives of people while minimising our impact on the environment.

I would also like to express my sincere condolences to every employee who has lost a colleague, a loved one or a friend to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our employees' commitment in the face of loss and fear brought on by the pandemic has touched me deeply. As the pandemic hits close to home, we support one another in this time of grief and hope that we may all find the strength to keep going and remain grateful for the blessings that endure.

As we continue our sustainability journey, we have our eye on the future and remain focused on innovative and new opportunities to make a difference in the lives of our employees, customers, suppliers and in the communities in which we operate. We can amplify our impact by leveraging our scale and the customer knowledge we have. We will persist in driving efficiencies in our operations to ensure we remain Africa's most accessible, innovative and affordable retailer, while reducing our impact on the environment. What we do on a day-to-day basis makes a tangible difference in the lives of millions of people, and we must ensure that this impact is positive and sustainable in the long term. 

Engelbrecht

CEO	GRI 102-14

SHOPRITE HOLDINGS LTD Sustainability Report 2021