In an historic first, Nielsen has been persuaded to vouchsafe us the actual market shares of the big boys. It turns out that Shoprite came first with 29.4%, but they didn’t come as first as Pick n Pay (34.7%), although they came more first than SPAR (25.5%) and Woolworths, in first place at 10.5%. As far as Pick n Pay is concerned, the issue is now resolved. As far as Shoprite is concerned, it was resolved last October, when numbers from Nielsen, revealed, briefly, that they really were coming first.

Comment: Next week: Nielsen reveals the secret of man’s red fire.

Woolies new Foodmarket in Constantia Village has boldly launched with the new Woolies identity. The work of Massimo Vignelli, the logo was in all likelihood developed under the stern eye of Woolie’s new creative director, recent Australian Vince Frost, which for those in the know is like saying “Woolie’s new musical director, Mick Jagger”. The new store, according to Foods director Julian Novak, puts the “food” into “foodmarket” with full on butchery and fishmongery, cheesier cheeses, a deli counter and a crispy fresh in-store bakery.

Comment: Woolies has very publicly expressed its support for local creative talent, which is widely acknowledged to punch far above its weight globally, and which may in fact have proved itself equal to the task of slapping a big sans serif W on a black square.

Shoprite’s sales grew 11.9% to R33.1 billion for the six months to December, with like stores gaining 6.4%. These numbers are apparently a little on the low side, brought there by weaker inflation and the effect of a stronger rand on revenues from foreign stores, where a lack of space is also becoming an issue. Performance in SA itself was strong, with total sales up 14.6% and like stores up 9.1%. Even furniture did OK, up 11.5% in an industry that was particularly badly hit in the downturn, as our ropy old TV couch will tell you. In other Shoprite news, Mr James W Basson exercised an option to buy 10 million shares late last year for just R6.51 each, and sold R3.7 million of the little chaps for a handsome R65.96 apiece.

Comment: Which is what we in the industry call “a result”.

Tiger Brands is poised for a further leap into Africa, tail lashing and whiskers twitching intently as it contemplates Capex of R600bars for both acquisitive and organic expansion, into “existing, new and adjacent market categories”. Last year, you will recall, the lithe one bought 51% of Haco Industries in Kenya, 74% of a Cameroonian chocolate business and all of Nestlé’s Crosse & Blackwell business, although it was rudely rebuffed in its attempt to buy a controlling stake in rival AVI. A big chunk of the wedge is likely to be spent on starting a R561 million upgrade to the Hennenman wheat mill in the Free State.

Comment: Springy.

Hot on the heels of the Pick n Pay/SACCAWU scuffle, and the booing of Julius Malema by Cosatu, ABI has been having its own spot of bother with organised labour, this time FAWU, which has been on strike at the bottler since just before Christmas. At issue is an 8.5% increase on salaries excluding bonuses, and while some FAWU members returned last week and more were expected this week, the matter still seems to be simmering. FAWU has also asked that casual workers and those employed through labour brokers, be allowed to return to work without prejudice.

Comment: Casual and brokered labour is likely to be one of the hottest issues of the next few years, especially in an industry with seasonal peaks such as ours.

Nestlé has reopened its Harare plant after receiving reassurances from the government that its staff will be safe from harassment. This after closing last month when government officials made an unofficial visit and ordered milk trucks to be unloaded. Later, official doubts were expressed about the validity of the work permit held by Nestlé’s MD. Nestlé has come under some pressure recently to purchase its milk from certain prescribed farms, notably those owned by one RG Mugabe. Nestlé has announced its intention to keep on buying milk from contracted farmers only.

Comment: This just months after cancelling their regular order (under some international pressure) from a farm owned by Grace Mugabe.

While consumer spending was down on the Bureau of Economic Research’s National Retail Index by what seems to us a whopping 27% for the month of December, most malls reported business pretty much as usual, with slight changes in the way people were spending. The Maponya Mall, for example, said there were fewer cash sales and impulse purchases with a rise in credit transactions for the period, while the V & A Waterfront said that local punters outnumbered furriners for a change, and that 2.3 million people had swung by in the month of December alone. Overall, the prediction is that sales for the month of November will have fallen 5% year on year, although the Bureau for Market Research is suggesting that there may be an uptick of around 1.8% in 2010.

Comment: So keep those “everything must go” banners up, boys. The ride is still bumpy.

After 186 plucky years of being British, Cadbury has thrown in the towel and accepted a £12billion takeover proposal from yankee mayo maker Kraft. This after various major shareholders – hedge funds, those sorts of people – had indicated their willingness to accept the deal. Cadbury will now work with Kraft management “to ensure the continued success and growth of the business for the benefit of our customers, consumers and employees”.

Back in ‘08, the UK was overrun by a veritable blitzkrieg of Das Harddiskounters, like Aldi, Lidl and Netto. Their eventual dominance of retail seemed inevitable, particularly as the banks collapsed and people started to look hungrily at their domestic pets. But as punters shuffle their way back to blingsville, this crowd are not looking so smart after all, losing both sales and market share over the holidays as more traditional grocers like Tesco and Asda stopped worrying and learnt to love the recession.

More reasons not to go: They pay 50% more for their Cadbury’s Dairy Milk than you or I, 16% more for their Colgate and 60% more for their Maggi Noodles down in Aus. In fact, no product available elsewhere is cheaper in Australia, where the only resource available in abundance is insufferable smugness.