Big up this week to Clicks which has been named the ‘Coolest Specialist Health & Beauty Store’ and its ClubCard the ‘Coolest Loyalty Programme’ in the 2024 Sunday Times GenNext Awards. The double win is a first for the business, which has won the former accolade five years running. “When young people look for advice, they don’t go to Google, they don’t go to YouTube, they go to TikTok,” explains Chief Marketing Officer Dr Mel van Rooy. “We’ve expanded our social media footprint and adjusted our marketing strategy in terms of where we speak to them, how we speak to them and what we speak to them about.” This data-driven approach to the fast-growing youth market is paying dividends, with a +16% increase in ClubCard transactions over the past year among customers between the ages of 18 and 25.

Comment: ClubCard is the OG, the Mack Daddy, and also, it turns out, the young upstart of loyalty programmes. Get your socials in order, people, and you may have a crack.

The Shoprite Group has successfully completed its largest-ever point-of-sale (POS) system implementation in a record time of under five months, with all 29,191 till points across its trading brands in South Africa now live. The new system enables seamless, integrated shopping across digital and in-store channels, highlighting the Group’s relentless drive to become Africa’s most profitable omnichannel retailer. The system (from GK Software) enables quicker adoption of new technologies and integrates all store processes into a unified, efficient platform, improving customer service and the in-store experience. The effort took 58,382 hours, with the conversion of 43 stores in a single day and the upgrade of 631 checkout lanes in a single night at its peak, setting things up nicely for Black Friday, with a cash-up process that’s 60% faster. “The implementation of the new system is a game-changer for us, it not only enhances our operational efficiency but also significantly improves the shopping experience for our customers,” notes CTO Chris Shortt.

Comment: Innovation, scale, efficiency. How Shoprite does things these days.

Last week we published some numbers pertaining to the working conditions of Checkers Sixty60 drivers. These numbers, which we sourced from our colleagues in the press, did not paint the full picture, and for this we apologise. The drivers, said Shoprite chairperson Wendy Lucas-Bull at the recent AGM, “earn significantly above the minimum wage by a long way, and they are well-remunerated and have significant benefits attached in terms of funeral policies, insurance and other things like that.” Next, a trading update from SPAR ahead of its results for the year through September. Headline earnings will be up somewhere from +6% to +16%, they say, with net debt down R2bn to R9.1bn, although the ongoing IT system issues at the KZN DC are still a drag on margins. Finally, staples like sugar, rice, toilet paper, and nappies are featuring heavily in Pick n Pay’s Black Friday deals. Last weekend the business sold enough sugar to sweeten over 70 million cups of coffee and enough rice to serve over two million meals. As PnP themselves point out, Black Friday has become an anticipated and planned-for savings opportunity for consumers.

Comment: But how much of a thing is the event turning out to be this year for South African shoppers? We asked them in a bespoke survey hosted by our friends at Chirp and the results were illuminating. To find out more, read our Black Friday 2024 article here.

In the US, multi-purpose retailer Target has had a rough fourth quarter. The business is a kind of odd mix between maybe Game, Makro, and Pick n Pay, with lots of clothing, GM and homeware, and electronics, as well as a pretty solid grocery offering, and is much-loved by young teens who troll the aisles for affordable cosmetics and fashion. Anyway, the business expects flat comparable sales and muted earnings for the quarter, in contrast with much bigger rival Walmart’s more robust numbers. “We are seeing the consumer become increasingly resourceful and strategic on how they shop,” says chief commercial officer Rick Gomez. By “strategic” we think he means “less” and “not here”. Moving on, in Japan, Seven & i Holdings (which owns 80,000 7-Eleven’s around the world) is the subject of an ownership tussle between its founding Ito family and Canadian outfit (and competitor) Alimentation Couche-Tard, which has offered a record of $47bn for the business. The Ito’s are busily putting funding together for their own bid which will be finalised by end December.

Comment: That’s a lot of retail real estate at stake.

A big week for Tiger Brands which has decided to sell its baby-focused interests, excluding nutrition, for a cool R605m cash as it trims its portfolio to focus on key categories. The deal includes all trademarks associated with Elizabeth Anne’s, including products such as shampoo and petroleum jelly, and all trademarks linked to its baby medicinal brands, Phipps, Muthi Wenyoni, Telament, and Antipeol. The Striped One will retain ownership of the Purity baby food brand and other nutritional trademarks. Who’s the lucky buyer? Don’t ask CEO Tjaart Kruger. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with a leading South African manufacturer of home and personal care products for the sale of our baby well-being business," he says coyly. Tiger has also sold certain brands in the home and personal hygiene categories, including Bio Classic, Bio Crystal, Kair, Fiesta, Black Silk and Eulactol, for R161m.

Comment: Any thoughts on who the buyer may be? Speculate freely in the comments.

Solid results from Rhodes and Hinds owner RFG, which while growing revenue just +1.5% to R8bn, saw operating profit increase +12.7% to R852m for the year through September as a result, in part, of a focus on cost controls. “Improving consumer confidence is seen in the short term, and we hope to get recovering consumer spending in the next 12 to 18 months to support revenue growth,” notes CEO Pieter Hanekom. Next, six months after first floating the idea, Astral Foods has produced its first small batches of canned chicken products, namely breast fillets in gravy, for trade sampling. If these get the nod, expect a whole new category fighting for elbow room with your brands and products in about March next year. Moving on, congrats to JP Landman, chair-elect of Libstar, who replaces Wendy Luhabe in the hotseat. Landman, as you know, is an independent analyst, focusing on trends in politics, economics, demographics and social capital. Finally, Nestlé is upping advertising and marketing, while trimming costs by at least $2.8bn by 2027 and spinning off water and premium drinks into a stand-alone global unit under new CEO Laurent Freixe, who assumed the position in September.

Comment: First Unilever, now Nestlé. The shake-up spirit is abroad among the global giants.

Consumer spending on FMCG and technology and durable products grew +4.1% year-on-year for the third quarter of the year, rising to R214bn, according to the latest NIQ retail spend barometer. FMCG accounted for R183bn of the total, although at +4.5% it grew slower than last year’s +6.5%. Frozen food and fresh food were the big winners, with sales increasing by +7.4% and +9.1%, respectively. What gives? The sector’s performance is enhanced by improving economic conditions, including declining inflation and increased consumer confidence. And, ahem, Eskom. “With the pause in load shedding, consumers continue to gradually increase their spending on perishable goods,” says NIQ retail lead Nikki Quinn. “This trend is set to continue as it appears unlikely that we will see the return of high levels of load shedding during the summer months.”

Comment: Good numbers. It doesn’t take much. Now if we could boost manufacturing and employment, we’d be talking.