The grocery retailer's loss before tax and capital items came in at $13.3 million in the 53 weeks ended March 2, from a loss of $78 million the previous year.

Full-year trading loss in its core Pick n Pay business narrowed by $56 million to $38 million, the company said.

The results were also supported by a 27.3% reduction in net interest paid as the group's recapitalisation plan made its initial impact on debt service costs, it said.

"When I returned in October 2023, I stated that the recovery of Pick n Pay would be a multi-year process and that things would get worse before they got better," said Chief Executive Officer Sean Summers.

"We sense that we see this unfortunate chapter now bottoming out and we have recalibrated our recovery programme to break even in the financial year 2028."

--Reuters--