Pick n Pay is "more than halfway" through its turnaround, after the food retailer delivered its sixth successive reporting period in which headline earnings per share grew more than 20%. "I'd say we're past halfway. We wanted to get the underlying margin back to where we were and get our share of the marketplace," said Pick n Pay CEO Richard Brasher."I feel like we're demonstrating that's more possible today than when we first said it."We've had a strong year, we've created some momentum and we need to maintain and increase it. I'm not sure you could say we're back - I think we'll hold that on ice for our 50th birthday party [next year]."Brasher came on board in February 2013, having been Tesco UK's chief. Since then, Pick n Pay's share price has increased more than 50%.story_article_left1Brasher has helped stabilise the business and stopped it from losing further market share. The annual results to the end of February showed customer growth was up 7% year on year and sales rose 8.2% compared with 6.1% last year.Costs are down and profits are up. The group opened 175 new stores and created 4500 new jobs over the past financial year, adding 4.5% to total space. It has spent R4.2-billion in capital over the past three years and has committed to spending R5-billion over the next few years."And I feel we're getting our fair share of the market which is something we haven't really had since 2003," said Brasher."In the early days we had to attend to our costs, which we continue to look at, but I'm encouraged that more customers and more turnover have ended up delivering this profit as much as good fiscal control."When Brasher joined Pick n Pay it was struggling with systems, losing market share and was beset by labour challenges.Alec Abraham, a senior equity analyst at Sasfin Wealth, said that "a lot of execution risks dissipated with the arrival of Richard Brasher"."[He] was at Tesco, so on paper he was the perfect person to lead this turnaround. And while a lot of initiatives were put in place by [his predecessor] Nick Badminton, there was a huge amount of execution risks which dissipated when he came along."Abraham said cost-cutting had been central to the group's turnaround. "One of the things that they did is that they collapsed all of those buying teams. Something like nine buying teams collapsed into one procurement office, so they can really use the might of their buying powers to get good pricing."story_article_right2The company's dividend policy had been under scrutiny, with many claiming that the control the Ackerman family have on the company was outdated and needed review.Abraham said there had not been any murmurs from the Ackermans about the company's dividend policy, or about dismantling the holding structure, but "that's an issue most people are uncomfortable with".Part of the group's turnaround strategy includes the 20 new next-generation stores that were added in the second half of the year, through new stores and refurbishments.Brasher said: "We've got a plan to keep the estate up to date."Of its 1145 Pick n Pay stores, 40 were refurbished in the period under review. Brasher said it was too soon to determine the impact. "The turnover I'm looking for is double-digit growth," he said.But Brad Preston, an equity analyst at Mergence Investment Managers, said despite the group's revised growth strategy, one of the concerns was its reliance on growing volumes."The concern is how much market share can they win and how much volume can they grow in a competitive environment," he said."We are a little concerned about how much more they can do."The share price is at quite a high price to earnings ratio, which means that the market is expecting higher earnings driven by margin expansion. To achieve that they are going to need to grow revenue and improve efficiencies," Preston said.story_article_left3Despite this, Brasher said: "Our ambition isn't secret. I never want to be more expensive than Shoprite and never want our customers feeling they need to go to shop in Woolworths because of quality, freshness and convenience."Group turnover was up 8.2% at R72.4-billion. Gross profit margin rose from 17.8% to 17.9% through efficiencies across the procurement and supply-chain channel. Gross profit rose 8.6% to R12.9-billion. And headline earnings a share rose 26.4% to 224.04c a share.Internal inflation was controlled at 3.1% versus CPI food at 5.3%, but Brasher emphasised that different categories yielded increases.Pick n Pay plans to open stores in Nigeria through a joint venture with listed AG Leventis. Several South African retailers that set up shop in Nigeria later pulled out because of difficulties in importing stock.Pick n Pay will continue to pursue opportunities on the continent including opening its first stores in Ghana by the end of 2017. The retailer opened 14 new stores in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Pick n Pay declared a final dividend of 125.20c, bringing the total dividend for the year to 149.40c...