The Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton was this week host to worried investors in Botswana-based retailer Choppies, which tried to ease their concerns following disappointing results. But Choppies, which was once described as a David and Goliath story after it listed on the Johannesburg bourse last year, might have thwarted the hopes of its investors."The [Botswana] economy didn't grow at all ... in those circumstances we did well. But my mandate is to expand beyond Botswana, though financially it may look a little bit distraught. Strategically that is not a disappointing result for Choppies," said CEO Ramachandran Ottapathu.Botswana remains the retailer's biggest revenue driver, with 20.8% coming from its 79 stores there.However, economic growth has slowed, with growth estimated for this year now at 3.5% from an earlier projection of 4.2%, according to Reuters.story_article_left1Earlier this month, the government of Botswana said it was expected to incur rolling budget deficits amounting to 24.7-billion pula (about R32-billion) for the next three financial years, as the diamond-led economy remained dependent on the mineral.Adriana Benedetti, of African Alliance Securities, said that in spite of this Choppies had remained resilient."Its margins weakened, which is quite disappointing because they have been very resilient for a very long time."But despite the challenging environment, operations in Botswana traded well, maintaining market share as the continued devaluation of the rand put downward pressure on prices and revenues.Turnover for the period increased 24% to 7.4-billion pula, while profits rose 12% to 1.44-billion pula.But industry analysts who have compared Choppies' aggressive expansion elsewhere in Africa with that of Shoprite may now be uncertain about the company's growth plan.Donald Motsomi, a research analyst at Stockbrokers Bo-tswana, said: "In Botswana, Shoprite is pretty small. They are just behind Choppies in terms of market share, but they are ahead of them [in terms of profit] by a large margin."Although Choppies controlled about 30% of the grocery retail market in Botswana, its expansion plans " won't be an easy road", he said."They've been in South Africa for quite a while now and it's still looking pretty tough with their presence in the mining towns." Choppies has 61 stores in South Africa, after acquiring 21 owned by Jwayelani in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.But with the group's current expansion plans, no new store has been planned in a mining town.Ottapathu said store sales in mining towns had dropped in three consecutive years."In 2013, they started dropping and we didn't feel it because others [competitors] were dropping at a high rate - 2014 it dropped and in 2015 it continued to drop," he said.story_article_right2"Those towns are gone, we need to realign ourselves and we need to relook at our strategies and generate other income."However, Ottapathu maintained that "we are not expanding blindly, we are looking at a market where we can make money over a period of time".Choppies also has stores in Zambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe, which have all had a negative impact on the retailer.Headline earnings per share declined to 7.25 thebe (about 9.48c) in the period under review from 16.92 thebe a year earlier.The group's share price has slumped almost 36% since the beginning of this year.When asked about the company's plans to expand into West Africa, where the Shoprite chain has been successful, Ottapathu said: "Long-term we never know, business dynamics can change."tshandup@sundaytimes.co.za..