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Those talks the Ackermen most emphatically were not having about selling a share of the business to Dutch retail group AHold have been called off, apparently. If such talks existed. Which they didn’t. Subsidiary Albert Heijn had the old Mont Blanc poised tantalisingly above the dotted line, apparently, but then according to a shadowy source close to the non-deal, “some issues cropped up, which caused Albert Heijn to want to adjust the price downwards," something the Ackermen were not willing to do. What they remain willing to do, however, is relook the pyramid structure of the business, which gives the founding family disproportionate swing in the boardroom.

Comment: Trying times for The Big Blue, who see market share continuing to decline and no announcement yet made about the new CEO.

Last week we ran a probably irresponsible piece speculating that KaapAgri might become the Sixth Retailer, whose arrival has been foretold in an ancient prophecy. This week, flushed with our success, we repeat the transgression: Can it be that FVC is the fabled Sixth retailer, of which seers have sung? They have, after all, just announced the acquisition with RMB Corvest of 50% Diamonds Discount Liquors, which operates mainly in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga and which has doubled in size to 40 stores in 2012 alone. Diamonds will now trade under the new Market Liquors brand, and will be conveniently positioned at the entrances or exits of Food Lover’s Market stores. FVC, you will recall, currently have 112 SA stores on the ground, to which Diamond makes a sizeable addition.

Comment: Reading between the lines, it appears that FVC are pursuing a SPAR-like strategy of grabbing a share of the food and liquor baskets in one fell swoop, while appealing to a more feminine crowd of hooch enthusiasts.

Anglovaal Industries Limited (AVI) have delivered an absolute pearler of a set of results for the year which ended in June, with revenue up 11% to R8.29bn and operating profit 23% to R1.37bn. Key contributors were I&J and fancy footwear store Spitz. And Entyce beverages, which could have been hit by declining demand for tea and coffee, managed to up its revenue by upping its prices as its raw material and wrapping costs increased. Snackworx went the other route, dropping prices on the back of improved factory performance and upping volumes. Where AVI has the advantage over rivals like Pioneer and Tiger is its relatively low exposure to the vagaries of the wheat and maize indices, although this does cause one to wonder somewhat what they put in the Ginger Nuts.

Comment: Sterling work, that curiously, but effectively, diversified conglomerate. Go and treat yourself to a pair of Jimmy Choos.

Foodcorp, which you may or may not have known is SA’s third largest food manufacturer, has just announced a sentimental and a socially-conscious, though by their own admission a not necessarily strategic investment of R46bar in the Eastern Cape town of Molteno, birthplace of Ouma Rusks. The 8,000m² factory will replace the existing 50 year old facilities on the farm where Ouma Greyvenstein, she of the firm bun and twinkling spectacles, commenced selling her beskuit in 1929. The new plant will increase production capacity by 25% to 23 tonnes a day and achieve all sorts of efficiencies that new equipment brings. The question is why? Surprisingly, our appetite for rusks is rocketing skyward at 16% YOY, to the extent that the factory has been designed to accommodate a third production line. Foodcorp brings 250 jobs to Molteno, and is the town’s largest employer, hence this commendable decision.

Comment: Now just imagine if the Chinese took a fancy to rusks. Wouldn’t that be something?

Last week, as you recall, Clover were spending – dropping R100bar on the Real Juice Company. This week, they’re raking it in, in the form of their annual results: revenue up 10.4% to R7.2bn for the year to June, and operating profit up 16.4% to R371.2m. A good year, with the strategy of focusing on branded and value-added products paying off with increases in market share in the relevant categories. The notable exception was UHT, where they are under pressure from cheaper brands. As always for Clover, pricing at the farm has been an issue, with milk going up 60c a litre in the first quarter to stimulate supply, then coming off 20c in August ahead of the high-production season. It’s complications like this, presumably, which has led the dairy giant into services like merchandising, and value-added products.

Comment: A healthy and energetic business, full to the brim of protein and calcium.

Growth in manufacturing hit 5.8% YOY for the month of July, rebounding from its dismal showing of 0.8% in June. But hold your horses there, young economist: before you get all excited like, have a look at last July’s numbers. See what we mean? That there is what we old hands call a low base. In fact, on a monthly basis, seasonally adjusted manufacturing shrunk by 1.1%. Lest you entertain any doubts, have a gander at the Kagiso Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which declined by 0.8 points to 50.2 in August, indicating that the second biggest contributor to our economy after consumption is indeed looking more than a little anaemic. Be that as it may, we can be moderately proud of the contribution of our own great industry: manufacturing in food and beverages grew 7.4%, and contributed 1.3 percentage points to the total, lagging only metal products and machinery.

Comment: With depressed growth around the world, manufacturing and the economy in general are not on their way back anytime soon.

BAT are apparently quite the outfit to work for, if the results of the South African Best Employer Awards, audited by the CRF institute in conjunction with Grant Thornton are anything to go by. BAT have received a Best Employer award five years in a row, a fact that they attribute to progressive HR, competitive remuneration, excellent training at their newly-operational Centre of Excellence, and of course the extra-long smoke breaks.

Meanwhile over at Aspen, sales for the year to June were up 23% to R15.3bn, while profit grew 22%. The Asia-Pacific region alone grew sales to R6bn thanks to acquisitions in the region last year. And speaking of which, Sigma
in Aus was just given the go ahead by the compateetion authoriddies in that benighted land for the sale of their generic drugs trade to Aspen for US$887 million.

Troubled UK Confectioner Thornton’s, which has recently embarked on a restructuring programme which will see 180 stores close in order to bump up the proverbial bottom line, has signed a deal for the distribution of its self-branded treats to Massmart, with scant detail given as to the scale and precise nature of the deal.