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Splendid work, that pleasingly verdant retailer, on the launch of a very nice online magazine. SPAR, having occupied the digital space as it were with its fresh and easy to navigate website, have taken things to the next level with Savour magazine, a combo of bold simple layouts, cunningly inserted video and pertinent links back to the parent site, all in a computer and tablet friendly format, which covers all sorts of ground from affordable recipes to sports and even travel. SPAR marketing director Mike Prentice explains that the launch of the mag was something of a leap of faith, with a not-insubstantial investment having been made and at one stage some doubt as to whether the title would find its way into digital print.

Comment: With decades of experience at communicating with various constituencies – analysts, consumers and retailer/franchisees – SPAR have a confident facility for this sort of project.

The business press, in the lull before the storm of various results coming due in the next couple of days, has made much of the idle speculation by overseas analysts that if Pick n Pay were keen to be taken over by Tesco rather than retaining their Ackerman-accented ownership, and if Tesco were keen to take Pick n Pay over rather than focusing on consolidation at home, then it could naturally follow that Tesco might buy a stake in Pick n Pay, as their models and market niches and private label strategies are compatible. But certainly not in the next 18 months. Hedging of the first order, of the sort we may once have indulged in, in our youth, when we remarked idly that were Walmart to come into our market, they would probably come via Massmart, for broadly similar reasons…what? Did they really? You don’t say! Local analysts in the meantime are exercising the grey cells over whether Pick n Pay is currently flat-lining or coiling itself for the leap, with the balance of opinion roughly even.

Comment: Harmless fun, really. Unless you happen to be a Pick n Pay share, in which case it is a matter of life or death.

The Country Road takeover of Witchery dahnunder has turned into something of a knife fight for The Dapper One. You see, Solomon Lew, a man whose name is prefaced in the lazy shorthand of less imaginative publications with the words “Australian Retail Mogul,” suspects that a rights issue conceived to pay for the Witchery transaction is nothing less than a pitchfork to force him out of Country Road. Under the rights issue, he is being asked to pony up AU$11million or face the dilution of his Country Road shareholding to 8.2%, at which point Woolies could buy him out compulsorily. He believes that he has been given insufficient information on the rights issue. Nonsense, old bean, drawled Sir Woolies. It’s all there in black and white. Especially black.

Comment: If you won’t fork over $11million for a sure thing, you can’t really call yourself a mogul, can you?

Here, at last, those full year results for Men in Black: total sales increased by 15.6% to R61,209million for the year to June, operating profit up 3.7% to R2,135million before transaction costs. Like store sales were up 9.6%, with 25 new stores opened, and 15 acquired, for a total of 348 after the closure of 5. Trading space increased by 7.3% to a total of 1,350,300m², and a record R1.7 billion in capital was spent on stores and infrastructure. All of this had an impact on the old bottom line, which with above-inflation increases in local taxes and services was hit by a 19.8% increase in costs. According to that nice young Mr Pattison, the high comparative sales growth suggests that punters are in better shape than they’ve been given credit for, and that retailers are becoming ever more competitive and innovative in their ceaseless quest to deliver value.

Comment: So there you go. Nice results, better prospects.

Some South African analysts have come over all parsimonious on the news that L’Oréal is bringing premium skin care range Kiehl’s to the South African consumer, whom, they believe, has other things to worry about than a glowing, youthful epidermis these days. Others disagree, averring that cosmetics will always be a defensive category when the chill winds of recession blow the desiccated husks of gondola ends down the echoing corridors of the malls. Kiehl, which distinguishes itself from other premium cosmetic ranges through its “try before you buy” sampling programme, will be coming at you priced between R70 and R750 a SKU.

Comment: Anyone, anyone? Yes, that trainee brand manager in the front? A stock keeping unit….good!

Herewith, ahem, a laundry list of Tiger’s eccentrically diverse holdings elsewhere on the continent, courtesy of our friends over at Finweek.

Nigeria:	Deli Foods (100%) – biscuits, crackers, wafers
	UAC Foods (49%) – sausage rolls, ice cream, water
Ethiopia:	East Africa Tiger Brands Industries (51%) – laundry soaps, detergents, pasta, personal hygiene
Kenya:	Haco Tiger Brands (51%) – stationery, homecare, haircare
Cameroon:	Chococam (74.7%) – confectionery

In addition, in May 2011 they bought 100% of Davita Trading, a business which exports powdered juice and seasonings to 28 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Comment: If that doesn’t look like the wholesome beginnings of a continental strategy, paint us orange with black stripes and…oh, never mind.

As Mr P’s comments (Massmart, above) suggest, reports of the demise of the SA punter have been greatly exaggerated. When the retail sales numbers for the month of June came in from the hoary sages at StatsSA, you could have knocked everyone down with a feather or similar object: 8.3% – their highest level of growth since the feeding frenzy of last December. Sales for May, you will recall, were up a similarly astounding 7.1% (revised), after the economists had predicted, meaninglessly, that they were likely to climb just 4.5%. The big contributor to quarterly YOY growth was retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods, who grew 9.4% and contributed 2.0 percentage points with general dealers, into which category our own great industry sort of fits, up just 3.8%, or 1.4 percentage points. The consensus among the Dismal Scientists is that retail sales growth is all very well, and is doing its bit to keep our heads above water, but that continued high unemployment and slow job creation will constrain trade in the next few months and put a damper on GDP growth.

Comment: A not unrealistic assumption giving the current global headwinds.

News from the Mr William Paulse front is that the 34-year old father of two from the Cape became the 100,000th person to be employed by Shoprite, in his case as a LiquorShop controller at N1 City. In the FY which ended in June, the rapidly-growing Big Red One, having opened 90 new outlets, added 7,000 jobs to the economy, equalling their 2010 haul.

In Australia, SA’s pharmaceutical whizzkids Aspen have picked up 25 of rival GSK’s more venerable brands, including herpes fighter Valtrex, epilepsy drug Lamictal and the antibiotic Amoxil for a relative song at R2.2billion. In total, the products in question generated sales of about R1 billion in 2011.