After 33 uncomplicated years of arm wrestling, beer and coarse jokes, the men of the Shoprite Board are welcoming a woman into their midst as an independent non-executive director. And being Shoprite, they’ve gone all out. Anna Mokgokong has a medical degree, is the co-founder and executive chairwoman of Community Investment Holdings and was 1999’s South African Business Woman of the Year, nogal. Christo Wiese was hoping to have announced two female appointees by now, but he has other things on his mind at the moment. Until Ms Mokgokong’s arrival, Shoprite was just one of 27 JSE listed companies without a woman on the board. Across the retail sector, women are few in executive positions – one at SPAR, three at Pick n Pay, four at Woolies – a phenomenon some observers attribute to the fact that retail does not depend on government contracts or licences for a living.

Comment: So, a step in the right direction. For a total of about ten such steps across the entire industry. Come on okes.

Despite predicting profit growth for Massmart of approximately double what it turned out to be for the year to June, six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters join the likes of meteorologists and sports journalists in the ranks of the mystifyingly still-employed. Massmart shares have fallen about 5.1% on a trading update which puts full year profit at 34% rather than the predicted 66%. This as a result, say the Men in Black of the cost of integration with Walmart. Getting bought by The Big Feller is not an inexpensive exercise, apparently. The full-year charge for integration this year will be about R170m, but it will go down to a more palatable R50million per annum within the next 18 months. However that number would settle down at about a R50m annual charge, chief financial officer Guy Hayward said at the time, adding that it would probably take about 18 months to get to that figure.

Comment: Still, a creditable performance in a tough trading climate.

The Rich, Creamy One inaugurated its Babelegi facilities last week, to much acclaim, even from hatchet-faced Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, who attended the event. At Babelegi, where Nestlé currently makes coffee creamers, they will now also be able to manufacture Milo and Cheerios breakfast cereals and Maggi noodles for the first time in South Africa, sourcing the majority of ingredients and packaging materials from local farmers and suppliers. In addition, they plan to invest about R47million expanding the coffee creamer factory, as well as R37million to build a new DC nearby. Nestlé are going large in SA because a. they like the prospect for the local market, and b. they like the prospects for Africa. They’re also expanding their coffee plant in Escourt to deal with growing sub-Saharan demand for Ricoffy.

Comment: With 12 plants now functioning in SA, Nestlé are here for the long, profitable haul.

Let us now bring forth from obscurity those special men and women who toil unsung that your domestic necessities be fresh and crispy (where appropriate) and most importantly, branded: the suppliers to suppliers. Specifically, those of Unilever, whom the Grand Bleu has recognised recently in its ‘Partner to Win Supplier Summit’. Winners in the various categories went a little something like this: bottlers Plastop and mobile gurus Brandtone for Innovation; vegetable oil maker CEOCo for Sustainability; canner Divfood for Capacity and Capability, miller Premier Foods for Business Integration; and in Service Excellence DHL and Point, who as many of Unilever’s communications partners will begrudgingly tell you do a bang-up job ordering print.

Comment: But no mention, sadly, of certain courageous weeklies which bring up-to-the-minute industry reportage to their seething throngs of junior brand managers.

Bang on schedule, if you believe the wild-eyed proponents of man-made climate change, here comes the next international food crisis, delivered by a perfect storm of rapacious agricultural practices, drought in the grainlands and instability (who would have thought?) in those hot and troubled places where oil is produced (although it’s not actually produced, just brought forth from its 60 million year storage facility in the bedrock. If it could be produced, it wouldn’t cause crises). Anyway, a global food crisis is brewing, with prices of maize, wheat, and soya in the last five weeks climbing between 30% to 50%, exceeding the 2008 levels. This has prompted economists to predict food price increases of between 10% and 15% in the next few months. For South Africa’s poorer households, who spend as much as 40% of their budget on food, this will, once again, be devastating.

Comment: Food supply will be the World War II for this generation and those to come. With every country in the world involved, and no one to defeat.