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An absolute stormer of a year for Shoprite, whose results we have in hand. Sales were up +16.9% to R215bn – the first time any retailer in South Africa has breached the R200bn mark – with trading profit up a markedly more modest +5.7% to R11.9bn. This as expenses grew +18.6% to R44.6bn, including R1.3bn in running costs for generators. Market share was up for the 52nd month in a row, by +1.4%, with a +13.2% increase in footfall, +3.9% growth in basket size, and 340 new stores. Sales through Checkers Sixty60 grew by an absolutely blistering +81.5%, while the 27,8 million members of the Xtra Savings Card rewards programme generated 2,478 swipes per minute. As you’d expect in times like these, private brand sales grew +19.2% in its South African supermarkets, while sales in the LiquorShop division grew +30.8% to R13.9bn. “We are not known for making knee-jerk reactions. We started on the strategy 6-7 years ago and we are still pretty much exactly on the journey. […] We want to win in the long run and it's the combination of this that is delivering the results that we see today,” said CEO Pieter Engelbrecht to the assembled analysts and other luminaries.

Comment: A remarkable year for a great business – that is nevertheless struggling like everyone else to keep costs in hand. For more on these fine results, click here.

Let’s delve a little deeper into those Woolworths results we covered briefly last week. Turnover for the year through June was up +7% to R85.7bn in what the business describes as a transformational year, with operating profit increasing +13.8% to R6.6bn. The disposal of David Jones not only took R18bn in liabilities off the balance sheet, and more importantly has reduced the cost base by R10bn per annum, shifting focus and energy more squarely to the local business. Sales were up +8.9% in Fashion, Beauty and Home, ahead of the market, and +8.5% in Food, supported by improved on-shelf availability and increased footfall, and despite the impact of load shedding. “I think our objective over the last couple of years has really been to restore Woolworths to what we think is its rightful place – not only in the minds of our customers, which we continually do day in and day out, but particularly in the minds of our other stakeholders and our shareholders in particular,” says CEO Roy Bagattini, who it increasingly seems was an inspired hire.

Comment: A great, and lighter, South African business on the comeback trail in tricky times.

Embracing the competitive forces of the market this week is SPAR, which has reached a consent agreement at the Competition Commission to end exclusive long-term lease agreements with malls, which Shoprite and Pick n Pay have already ditched. According to SPAR’s deal, it will “not include exclusivity provisions in any new head leases and will cease to enforce exclusivity against all competitors by December 2026”. Staying with the Commission, that august body has approved the sale of Wellington-based meat supplier Tomis Group to Pick n Pay, for the sum of R340m, which will cover the feedlot, abattoir and a facility that processes lamb and beef carcasses, primal cuts, and offal. Finally, the Information Regulator (played no doubt by Jason Statham) has ordered Dis-Chem to take remedial action for last year’s hack which saw the personal data of 3.6 million customers being breached, or face a fine of up to R10m, imprisonment, or both. Dis-Chem’s failure to notify data subjects, says the regulator, has “breached the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information.”

Comment: South Africa still has a robust regulatory framework in place, whatever our other shortcomings.

German super Aldi is on a shopping spree in the US where its low-price, limited-range model appeals to punters who have otherwise not given Euro retailers the time of day. In August, the business announced that it would be acquiring Southeastern Grocers, which owns 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys. Aldi hopes to have 2,400 stores across 38 states by year end, excluding the 400 in question. Over the pond, Tesco has rolled out body cameras for frontline employees following a spike in verbal and physical attacks by deranged customers, up a third since last year. Tesco has spent a considerable whack over the last four years on such security measures as door access systems, protection screens and digital radios. “Crime is a scourge on society, and an insult to shoppers and retail workers,” says CEO Ken Murphy. In South Australia, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) reports that there has been a significant increase in snatch-and-grab and swarming thefts from retail stores over the past 12 months, as cost of living increases take their toll.

Comment: We’re living in uncertain and uniquely unequal times. These forces will play themselves out, wherever we are in the world.

Some good – or at least hopeful – news at last from RCL FOODS, which fired up its new plant in Hammarsdale, KZN, this week. The business has invested R220m in the new abattoir, and another R400m is being invested by contract growers (many of whom are from previously disadvantaged communities) to build 78 new grower houses for themselves. RCL’s plan is to return production to its pre-2017 levels, when the business was forced to cut a shift at Hammarsdale and retrench 1,350 workers due to chicken dumping by the likes of India and Brazil in our insufficiently regulated market at the time. RCL believes that the opening of the plant is testament to the Poultry Sector Master Plan, a blueprint for creating capacity, stimulating demand for chicken, growing exports, boosting transformation and bringing in previously excluded farmers and other players. “Government put in place a safeguard action on poultry imports from some European countries, and what happened next was the extraordinary story of a local industry moving from decline to growth,” said Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel at the opening.

Comment: Excellent news – at a policy level, for RCL, and for the people of Hammarsdale.

Congrats to Nestlé, which according to Brand Finance’s annual ‘Food 100’ ranking has earned the title of the world’s most valuable food brand in 2023, its brand value up +8% to $22.4bn on the back of strong sales growth across its extensive brand portfolio. Chinese dairy brand Yili picked up a distant second at $12.4bn. Moving on, Coca-Cola Africa has appointed Sergio Vieira as the new vice president of franchise operations, South Africa, replacing Phillipine Mtikitiki, who has taken on the role of vice president of franchise operations, overseeing Italy and Albania. Vieira’s an old Coke hand, having joined the Brazilian business’ commercial function in 2002. His recent experience includes a very successful spell as Marketing Director at Coca-Cola Hellenic, Nigeria. Finally, the Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled in AVI’s favour against Cape Cookies CC, which was attempting to register the (honestly quite clumsy) name Snackcrax for one of its lines. AVI rightly believed that this was too close to its Salticrax, Snacktime and Vitasnack brands.

Comment: Brands eh. Like so much gossamer in the wind, until you put a hard cash value on them.

32.9% of South Africans are unemployed, an absolute disgrace where the total for the continent is closer to 6%. As a result, according to the World Bank, around 55.5% of South Africans live at the national upper poverty line, and 40% of households in the country face food insecurity. Yet more disgraceful is that an estimated 10.3 million tons of food and beverages are wasted annually, or 34.3% of local food production. We’re not unique in this – the United Nations estimates that lost and wasted food accounts for 38% of total energy usage in the global food system. Much of the waste happens on the farm: according to the United Nations Environmental Impact (UNEI), food losses at the farm level account for between 15% and 25% of total food waste, with inefficient processing, drying and storage of food, and a lack of access to markets contributing to the waste.

Comment: Working with farmers to develop supply chains that reduce this waste is critical for all businesses in the food industry, including retailers, logistics providers, and manufacturers.