Makro has 16 warehouse clubs in South Africa trading in food, general merchandise and liquor.

Stores are located in major metropolitan areas and operate under a low-cost/low-margin trading philosophy. This ethos equals high volume distribution of merchandise at competitive prices.

The cornerstone of the value offering to all customers is the merchandise differentiation on quality, innovation, style and pricing. Makro continues to invest extensively in broad-based development of leadership and management competencies as well as basic literacy and numeracy skills. Open dialogue with all employees and their representative bodies is actively encouraged.

The company currently employs 5 647 full-time equivalent staff, of which 45% are permananet staff. There are over 55 000 active product units on offer and 1.8m customers have traded with the business in the past year.

At Makro we like to stay in touch and update our valued customers on a weekly basis on fantastic deals via traditional and electronic media, both above and below the line and run multiple programmes to recruit new customers/retain or grow existing customers. We take customer service very seriously and have set up a national call centre (as well as seven local centres in stores) to attend to all your queries, suggestions, concerns, complaints and general feedback.

Security checks are performed at the exit points of our stores to ensure that all goods have been charged for correctly and that the goods you have paid for, are all in your trolley. This also assists us to keep stock losses in check so that our prices remain low.

The security personnel conducting end control checks are employed by an outsourced company and have been trained to perform their duties efficiently and in a customer-friendly manner, without an unreasonable impact on your time. Please report bad service to the store management or our national call centre on 0860 300 999.

Future store development opportunities includes that of the new Polokwane and Nelspruit stores opening in the second half of 2011. We hope to expand our retail offering further and further and claim addresses locally and across borders. Watch this space for dynamic updates and developments.