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After a brief interregnum by legendary ad man Mike Bosman, SPAR has found a new CEO from within its own ranks, namely Angelo Swartz, currently Divisional Managing Director of SPAR KwaZulu-Natal. Swartz has been with SPAR for 16 years and was previously at Woolworths. By tradition, he will also chair the SPAR Guild. Of similar significance is the appointment of Megan Pydigadu into the newly minted role of Group Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Executive Director of the Board starting on 1 November 2023. “This position will strengthen the Group’s executive team and provide support to the CEO on the coordination and oversight of the operational and functional activities of the Group as well as retailer profitability,” says SPAR. Pydigadu joints SPAR after stints at Deloitte and tech solutions outfit EOH Limited and brings restructuring and change management skills into the mix at a time when the business could use them.

Comment: A prudent mix of business as usual and considered course correction from SPAR.

The boys (and indeed girls) from Brackenfell have opened their first OK urban convenience retail store in Sonstraal, Durbanville, and this is not your tannie’s Fouriesberg OK Foods or MiniMark we’re talking about here. Rather, it’s a minimalist Woolies-challenging c-store with a strong fresh offering (including convenience foods, sushi and coffee) and the lean and agile range of groceries that you would expect to see in the neighbourhood Checkers Foods format. You’ll also find a healthy sampling of Checkers’ premium private brands including Forage and Feast, Oh My Goodness!, and Simple Truth ranges. Also: OK urban is cashless, although not cashierless like Shoprite’s UNIQ clothing stores. Is it a franchise, like the rest of the OK stores? Not yet: they’re apparently trialling the format before putting it out on the open market – putting it in competition not only with Woolies (which no longer has a franchise operation) but also Pick n Pay and SPAR (who do).

Comment: The speed with which Shoprite innovates is a marvel to behold. Suppliers take note and keep up.

A big milestone this week for Clicks, which just opened its 700th pharmacy, 20 years and more after it opened the first one in Seapoint. It’s South Africa’s biggest retail chemist by a now unassailable margin, the largest provider of schedule one and two medications, and the largest private sector employer of pharmacists. North of the border, now, where Pick n Pay aligned-TM Supermarkets seems to be enjoying results of which its larger cousin would be envious: revenue from the supermarkets division up by +44% in the year to February 2023, with unit sales up +2% even as the business comes under pressure from a burgeoning informal sector. Its formal competitors in that difficult market include OK Zimbabwe, Choppies, and SPAR. Finally, a trading update from Woolies, with turnover up +10.8% for the year through June and +9.3% in like stores. Online sales in food increased by +28.5% in SA and contributed 3.8% of SA sales. Food sales overall were up +8.5%, with fashion, beauty and home increasing +8.9%.

Comment: Solid if unexciting. More when the full results drop.

SPAR Switzerland, which as you know is now owned outright by SPAR South Africa, has just opened its third 24/7 SPAR Express convenience store in the presumably… (Googles)… correction, devastatingly picturesque village of Surava. An innovation of the store, which provides for the everyday needs of the happy villagers, is that purchases are scanned using a smartphone and paid for by card or something called Twint. Or that could be the name of the benevolent mayor, we’re not sure. To the US now, where Walmart is leveraging its real estate by upping the number of third-party ads punters will see on screens in self-checkout lanes and TV aisles, hear over the store’s radio and even taste in the form of sample items at demo stations. This is a potentially vast commercial opportunity: the big-box behemoth has over 4,700 stores in the US and serves 139 million-odd customers in stores or on the website or app each week. Still, advertising currently accounts for less than 1% of global revenue, or $2.7bn.

Comment: An example the likes of Shoprite will no doubt soon be following. Make that a line-item in your media budget.

In a last-minute pass for the troubled sugar giant, but also a mark of how far it has fallen, Tongaat Hulett, currently under business rescue, has announced its selected strategic equity partner (SEP). Kagera Sugar Limited is a major sugar business based in Kagera, situated in the northwestern part of Tanzania, with assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Middle East. The proposed transaction will comprise the acquisition of Tongaat Hulett, ensuring continuity for the operations in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana. Kagera Sugar has a solid track record and offers technical and operational knowledge to assist in the turnaround of Tongaat Hulett’s South African sugar assets. Partnering with Kagera will allow Tongaat Hulett to continue functioning, and to improve and retain jobs in KwaZulu-Natal, including among the Group’s many small-scale growers.

Comment: A sad day for a once great business. But perhaps a new dawn too.

Farewell from Tiger Brands to CFO Deepa Sita who is leaving to take up an opportunity in Australia, previously known as a place offering opportunities to London pickpockets wishing to reinvent themselves as jolly swagmen. Sita joined Tiger in 2020 from Masscash, where she served as interim CEO. Moving on, Heineken Beverages South Africa has revealed the details of the Bokamoso empowerment programme by which its almost 5,000 employees will jointly own a 6% stake in the company through an employee share ownership plan. The plan was one of the conditions of ownership imposed on the Dutch brewer by the Competition Commission when it acquired Distell for R38bn earlier this year.

Comment: A vote of confidence in our economy and our people.

Retail trade sales have declined for six straight months, putting us in what should probably be called a retail recession, dropping -1.4% in May, with general dealers (the largest portion of the retail index, down -3.7%), and retailers in hardware, paint and glass (down -8.7%) the biggest losers. Our own great sector, represented as retailers in food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores was down -5.5%. FNB Economist John Loos says the worst is still coming, with the full impact of interest rate hikes and economic slowdown yet to reflect in the numbers. A surprise winner was textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods, up by +6%, perhaps as a result of the low inflation in the category and people buying new jeans after COVID.

Comment: Retail sales in South Africa have often been buoyed by sentiment, whether justified or not. No longer.