When Woolworths decided to buy back its franchise stores, its share price was just under R20; six years later the price is four times as much since the company has consistently delivered growth. The buy-back of 76 of the franchise stores may have been the retailer's saving grace as it aimed to simplify its structure and increase profit.Woolworths shares are trading at about R84.Its focus on both food and clothing has placed it in a better position than some of its peers.Byron Lotter, a portfolio manager at Vestact, said on Friday that Pick n Pay had "grossly underperformed" Woolworths in the past 10 years. Its share price had gained about 140% while Woolworths' had grown about 536%."Woolworths consumers are a lot more resilient than the lower-end market. We saw Massmart's results on the same day and some of those divisions were struggling." Lotter said Shoprite had also gone through a rough patch.story_article_left1At its results presentation this week, CEO Whitey Basson said that while Shoprite had reported the highest turnover, Woolworths' incremental turnover growth was faster.In the past financial year, Woolworths reported 11.9% turnover growth, Shoprite 11.6% and Botswana retailer Choppies 19%."These guys have the ability and quality to ride these waves and continue to produce stellar results," said Lotter.Kyle Rollinson, an analyst at Avior Capital Markets, said Woolworths stock had rerated quite a bit over the past 10 years."The initial rerating came on the back of them growing a really good food business in South Africa. That was further compounded by the work that [CEO] Ian Moir has done at Country Road in Australia," said Rollinson."There was a further rerating on the back of good acquisitions, such as the Witchery group, so all those factors led to the business performing better than its peers. But you have to look at the times. Ten years ago retailers performed exceptionally well, and the credit cycle was booming."TFG's share price has declined 10.12% since February last year, while Woolworths fell 6.10% over the same period, as South Africa's retail environment proved less than favourable for retailers targeting discretionary spending...