Shoprite’s interims, then, with trading profit up 16.7% to R2.164billion and operating profit 19.8% up to R2.188billion, on the back of 13.2% turnover growth to R41.054biljoens for the six months to the end of December, an improvement on 2011’s performance when growth dipped slightly. No surprises there, then, despite the erosive power of 25% unemployment in the Big Red One’s heartland. Within the overall rosy glow, there are of course several success stories – margin up by 0.2 percentage points to 5.3% as investments in supply chain and general efficiencies take a grip, the growth of Usave (14 new stores for a total of 204 and turnover up 20.9%), Africa (sales growth of 21.2%) and MEDI-Rite (25% more prescriptions filled for the period) to name but several. CEO J.W. Basson attributes the success to the efficiencies mentioned above, and to the Group’s expanding footprint which buffers it against hard times and tough competition.

Comment: With 174 stores planned for the next 18 months, the red tide seems unstemmable, although the pressure on top and bottom line growth off an increasingly high base will present a challenge to the Group.

Over at Massmart, young Mr Pattison refers to a “period of investment” which will ultimately be “good for the company.” A solid set of numbers though – revenue was up 14.9% to R31.54billion for the six months to December and operating profit before forex and integration costs was up 4.8% to R1.326billion. Of note was the fact that comparable sales were up 9.2% which, looking at national retail sales growth of 8.7%, suggest an overall gain in market share. Sales in Africa were up by 21.3%, which adjusted southward for the strength of the rand translates into a gain of 12.8% in local currencies, respectable if not stellar. The star performer appears to be the Masswarehouse (Makro) division, with sales up 18.3% and trading profit before tax up 12.4%. Of interest is Masscash, the cash ’n carry business, where sales grew 16.3% but profit before tax dropped by 21.8% as a result, perhaps, of big investment in acquisitions like Rhino and store makeovers.

Comment: Tough trading conditions and the odd distraction here or there might have played a part in this slightly muted set of figures.

Where’s it all happening these days, eh? Do you have to ask? Elokshini, that’s where, where retail developments aimed at the poorer punter are the star performers in property portfolios that once lionised the marbled vaults of their more suburban counterparts. This performance is driven in no small measure by their almost inevitable location adjacent to commuter hubs, and to the government grants which keep even the poorest South Africans shopping. Vukile’s Daveyton Mall, for example, is running at a trading density of R28k/m² annually, comparing favourably with upmarket malls which trade in the R20,000-R30,000 bracket. Their Dobsonville Mall serving LSM 4–6, brings in 958,000 visitors a month, with a trading density of R27,900/m² a year, or 12% up from last year.

Comment: Across the spectrum, retail tells the story that all is not lost with Sam, economically or socially.

Our sharply dressed though manly friends over at Imperial Logistics (those puffer jackets!) turned in handsome sales of R38,4billion for the six months to December 2011, an increase of 22%, and grew profit 23% to R2,6billion for the six months ending 31 December 2011. Operations in Africa were particularly pleasing, with operating profit up 17.4% to R512milions. Another big win is that the business is transitioning successfully from a reliance on transport and warehousing execution to assisting its clients with logistics planning and integrated supply chain management. Other big news this year has been the successfully concluded acquisition of German logistics outfit Lehnkering for R3billion, which transaction is expected to start paying off pretty much immediately.

Comment: A remarkable turnaround from the dark days preceding 2009, with revenue growth totalling upward of 60-odd% since then.

That other once-troubled logistics giant Super Group, which some of us suspected might ride into the sunset five or so years ago, has also turned itself around, with revenue up 23% to R4.7billion for the six months ending December 2011 and operating profit up 36% to R405million. Poshly-monikered CEO Peter Mountford puts it all down to a pleasing performance by the Supply Chain South Africa business, a good improvement in the margins of the African Logistics operation and a better than expected showing by Fleet Solutions.

Comment: And he obviously knows what he’s on about, having turned the out-of-control eighteen wheeler himself.

It has been one of those universally acknowledged facts for how long now that South Africa is the Gateway to Africa and so it shall remain. The roads! The ports! The JSE! Sandton! Clifton! Now three other economies are lining up to replace us in this sought-after role, viz Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt, all of whom while lacking in infrastructure and overburdened to one degree or another by a heady combination of red tape and corruption, are nevertheless giving us a run for our money. Nigeria, for e.g., raked in $11billion during 2010 in foreign direct investment (they have both oil and multitudes), and has an economy which will be three times the size of SA’s by 2050 at current rates of growth.

Comment: A gateway could after all be perceived as a gatekeeper by businesses and countries wanting to get more than a toehold on the continent and a destination to avoid rather than otherwise. SA needs to stay competitive on the continent.

Last week we scooped everyone with a tight little story about Spar International’s numbers, and for good measure threw in a voorskou of the local digits too. What we didn’t realise is that there are two Spars – the retailer we all know and love, and this other crowd, inexplicably and possibly inexcusably known as Spar Group, Inc., a services company. It was on the latter’s numbers that we erroneously reported. Apologies, of course to the real SPAR. Locally, SPAR have since reported that turnover was up 13.5% to R10.98billion for the quarter ended 24 December 2011, nice one.

Results season, like spring in Namaqualand, brings forth every semester its new flock of aphorisms* from SA’s best- loved CEO...

On Marriage: “I entertain nobody except my wife.”
On Succession Planning: “We never know who would be the next guy, he may be a rear gunner from World War II, we don’t know.”
On Single Exit Pricing, explained at last: “If you can convince government that they shouldn’t tie our one leg, the one that we can use to kick with, so that would be the right leg, then obviously we would be able to bring prices further down.”
On Anxiety: “I read too many newspapers, so it worries me that I read too many newspapers.”
On Executive Wellbeing: “We have a high output per person and a bunch of cheerful, well-liked guys, who earn little salaries … but it seems to work for us.”
On the Leisure Pursuits of Successful Men: “Thank goodness Lamberti has gone off to fly his helicopter and Sean Summers is driving his Ferrari too fast in Italy these days …”

*A pithy observation that contains a general truth

Singing on occasion off the same hymn sheet, Messr’s Basson and Pattison have both highlighted the opportunities represented by Nigeria in recent pronouncements, with Whitey saying that the good-natured lunatic up north could support northward of 700 grocers in the years to come and Mr P reckoning that Game would be happy with 10-20 Game stores there in the next few years, and both seeming to agree that with the right mix of infrastructure and stability, it has the potential to be bigger than SA as a market.

Our thoughts at the Tatler go to the family of the young man who lost his life in a botched hijacking after an armed robbery at the Builder’s Warehouse in Rivonia last Wednesday, and to Massmart, who handled the tragic situation promptly and with great sensitivity.