SA's biggest building materials retailer Cashbuild has painted a bleak picture of the state of the economy at ground level, showing struggling low-income earners and bakkie builders are continuing to pull back on home renovations and building work.
The group said in a fourth quarter operational update on Tuesday that revenue at its 308 existing stores decreased 2%, with 10 new stores contributing 2% growth.
This, it said, combined with the results in the previous quarters, equated to an overall decrease in revenue of 4% for the year ended June, or a 7% fall when excluding the effects of looting of stores in the prior year.