Lewis strives to improve the quality of life of all our stakeholders by positively impacting on their lives. As such, we seek to be an integral part of the community, recognised by the communities in which we operate as a dependable, caring and an ethical corporate citizen.

Our core strategy is reflected in our motto: Supporting communities that support us. The cornerstone of this strategy is to identify opportunities that are in line with our goals and objectives: promise sustainability: show measurable results in the short, medium- and long-term; create a win/win relationship between us and our beneficiaries, and provide the greatest social impact and value for the society we work and live in.

The majority of our support goes towards education and nutrition followed by health and social development/community upliftment – especially towards the plight of children at risk in our society. We endeavour to make a difference in our communities and society.

We work with selected projects that are community-based in the neighbourhoods where our employees and customers live. An optimal outcome is to create working models that can be replicated – thus creating sustainable, independent community projects in the long-term.

We encourage socio-economic development participation from every level of the organisation by actively seeking employee community involvement opportunities; communicating these projects through our internal communication channels; and encouraging our stakeholders to get involved.

It is important to our organisation, to our brands and to our relationships with key stakeholders – namely, our customers and our employee base – that we actively pursue our integrated socio-economic development strategy in a transparent manner.

Although primarily focused in South Africa, the programme includes communities in the neighbouring countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini where the group has a retail presence.