After weeks and weeks of leaden skies and sarcastic analysts, a silver lining for The Big Blue at last. Shadowy international ratings agency Fitch has given the embattled retailer a national long-term rating of “A”, which means they view its prospects as stable. They cite, inter alia, its “leading market position in the domestic food retail industry and the diverse range of its product mix” as contributing to their hope for the future of the business. They are also impressed with the steps Pick n Pay has taken to right itself, including reduced costs‚ better working capital management and a sharper focus on the old supply chain. They believe that these steps towards transformation of the business will start showing a financial upside by 2014, although they note primly that it has taken the business some time to identify and respond to changes in the market.

Comment: When was the last time Fitch was rated? Eh?

In probably the biggest bit of economic liberation since Perestroika or Glasnost, we forget which was which, India has opened the subcontinent for business to the retail giants of the world, who are all slavering to get a slice of that fragrant pie, crammed as it is with a billion or so eager consumers. But, and there are several, in order to protect India’s 10million-odd small retailers, stores can only be set up in centres of more than a million souls (India has fifty such cities) and must put down at least $100million, half of that in the rural areas. And 50% of the investment should be in back-end infrastructure other than parking lots and stores, for e.g.: processing, manufacturing, distribution, design improvement, quality control, packaging, logistics, storage, warehouse and agriculture market produce infrastructure. Meet these condition, say the powers that be, and it’s a won-win-win.

Comment: Hence Shoprite’s renewed interest in that vast, ancient, mysterious, seething, oh shut up.

Another retailer who deserves a bit of good news to follow a rocky patch, at least when it comes to the “social media”, is Woolworths, and by jiminy they’ve got it! They’re one of just five South African companies – and the only local retailer – to be listed on the Dow Jones sustainability index. Woolies, you may recall, embarked some years ago on something called a Good Business Journey, focusing on the six key areas of sustainable farming, water, energy, waste, social development and transformation and since 2008, they’ve managed to squirrel away more than R135million in savings. The current focus is on the life cycle of the products on their shelves, the impact of food production and the use of textiles, as areas with the biggest energy and water impacts in the value chain.

Comment: For more from Woolies on the Good Business Journey, make sure you don’t miss their session at the CGCSA Conference – what? You haven’t booked yet? Good grief.

Metcash, which has been shedding underperforming or otherwise problematic assets and generally consolidating since ex-ICC CEO Peter Dodson took over, has just announced its new structure. The business, which is substantially indebted to Investec and Nedbank for its continued survival, now consists of 10 Metro-branded stores, which will form the springboard for a revitalised Metro business, which is now owned by the Gattoo Family of Devland Cash & Carry, Feroz and Fayaaz Moosa, Rayhaan Hassim and Dodson himself – an ownership structure which bears more than a passing resemblance to that of ICC, which pioneered a cooperative style, consolidating buying and some other functions centrally for a group of privately-owned businesses. And speaking of buying, terms we are informed will remain unchanged until the New Year, after which they will be presented with those of Elite Star Trading. The fate of the Namibian operation, currently owned by Investec and Nedbank, is still under discussion.

Comment: The reboot of Metcash may at last gather pace under this new dispensation.

With a waft of saddle soap, sweat and old leather, and a swashbuckling swirl of their riding cape, the grandly-named Imperial Logistics have moved into the pharmaceutical supply chain with the acquisition of RTT’s pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare supply chain services, for the tidy sum of R500million. Make no mistake, this is a big freakin’ deal: RTT Health Sciences is one of Africa’s leading outfits, specialising in multi-channel delivery of essential medicines and consumer health products in South Africa, and to Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria. This gives Imperial a toehold in the lucrative and growing area of pharma, as well as deepening, and indeed broadening, their footprint on the continent previously known as dark.

Comment: A canny although costly acquisition by an impressive business.

Generally “going the way of Australia” has a nasty, mean-spirited, bureaucratic ring to it, and no exception here, we’re afraid to report. The government is thinking of going the way of Australia when it comes to tobacco branding, legislation that would render cigarette packaging as brown, featureless and devoid of interest as the outback itself. These boxes will also feature pictures of the body parts of dry and skeletal smokers, like so many road kill kangaroos, to take the image to its satisfying conclusion. The “pictorials” as they are known are currently being tested on the sensitive punters of the Western Cape, with reports on their effects due out in December, with legislation to follow which could be drafted in the first few months of next year.

Comment: 44,000 deaths in SA are currently related to tobacco, so whatever the measure, the intentions are honourable.

P&G has $2billion per year to spend on research and development, you will be amazed to know – that’s 60% ahead of its biggest (and here unnamed) competitor. You can get a lot of bang for buck like that, and if you’re Bob McDonald, CEO, you have some pretty outrageous plans. Like, I don’t know, decoupling continuous economic growth globally from the exploitive use of resources? Like totally saving the planet kind of thing? You can’t do it on your own, believes Bob, so through bodies like the Consumer Goods Forum of which our very own Chairman Ackerman the Younger is co-chair, P&G are collaborating with other businesses in the development of green technologies and practices. For e.g., their PET Technology Collaborative, where they are working with Coke, Ford, Heinz and Nike to develop plastics made from plant-based materials. And here’s another one – collaborating with tens of thousands of people all at once through crowdsourcing, a cool way of getting lots of good ideas or lots of money for your good idea or both, through, yup, social media.

Comment: Bob. He may not be our uncle. But he’s definitely our man.

Retail sales? You don’t want to know. After June’s bonanza (an upwardly revised 8.6%) the numbers came in at an increase of just 4.2% year-on-year for the month of July, with economists and interested others having been raving excitedly about something closer to 7.2% these how many weeks. And on a monthly basis‚ sales were up by a negligible 0.1% in July following month-on-month changes of 2.5% in June and -1.0% in May. On the upside, the big numbers seemed to come from our own dear industry, although with StatsSA’s arcane classifications there really is no telling. Here, for what it’s worth, are the top three:

‘All other' retailers – 11.6%
Retailers in textiles‚ clothing‚ footwear and leather goods – 10.5%
Retailers in pharmaceutical and medical goods‚ cosmetics and toiletries – 7.3%

Comment: The consensus seems to be that July’s numbers, rather than June’s, are a bitter taste of what’s to come for the rest of the year.

He may not like to throw money at SARS, but Christo Wiese loves chucking it at Shoprite, having bought two lots of single share futures for R58million in the past couple of weeks and exercising options worth R207bar. Given the current share price, he’s already made a cool R3million on his latest investment in the Big Red One.

The Tiger Brands purchase of a 63.35% stake in Dangote Flour Mills Plc of Nigeria has gone ahead, you will be pleased to notice, with Tiger ponying up approximately R1.5 billion for the inestimable privilege of assisting in the provision of the white stuff to the people of West Africa while doing the right thing by its strategic imperative to grow the continental footprint.

There’s life in the dear old CPI, measure of all things inflationary, yet. CPI for August came in at a nice, round 5%, in line with the expectations of amazed economists who are way better at getting it wrong. This suggests that the slide towards food deflation in some categories might have pulled up. What it means for the ruminations of Mrs Doubtfire and her monetary policy committee remains as yet unclear.