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A couple years back, when The Big Blue opened their Hurlingham store, the idea seemed to be that it was a bold experiment whose more practical ideas might in time be rolled out. As it turns out, they’re going a little larger than that. As you may recall, they’re opening a couple more of the jolly green giants, in Roodepoort and Chatsworth, and now they’re doing it all over again in the V&A Waterfront. And not only will it be large 6,000m2 compared with the existing 2,600m2, but will also offer much more parking to Capetonians, who for some reason prefer to spend the months of December through February in their steaming hot cars on De Waal drive. 

Comment: A bold and excellent move, sending a confident message to punters and competitors alike about PnP’s designs on retail turf in the Mother City.

Woolies aren’t expecting miracles on The Dark Continent. But like other retailers, they are expecting growth, as the populations of the continent urbanise and grow their disposable income rather than their subsistence crops. And for The Dapper One, the model of choice is the corporate one and, at a push, JVs like the one they seem to be pursuing in Kenya via their Mauritian operation, rather than franchise: they’re currently in negotiations to buy back their stores from the franchisee of the Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Ghana territories. Among the challenges of doing business in Africa are its volatile currencies, its lack of retail space and that heady combo of corruption and red tape that gets the blood racing on a Monday morning. And then there’s the cold chain, the absence of which means that clothing accounts for 90% of sales in much of Africa. These challenges, Woolies believe, can best be met with a consolidated supply chain. 

Comment: Those classy white trucks with the nicely photographed broccoli on their sides and the rich, red earth of mother Africa in their tyres…

Shoprite’s share price has dropped from R206 at the beginning of the year to about R175 now. “Unfair!” you cry, and by jingo, you’re right: its interims were not what could by any stretch be described as bad, with revenue up 14%, helped along by a 28% increase in sales elsewhere in Africa, 11.5% here at home where the rest of the market managed only 8.2%, and operating profit up about 13.2%. And the auguries seem similarly hopeful for the Big Red One: while Africa comprises 13% of turnover now, the sky’s the limit in the decades ahead, and in the short term, growth on the continent should cover any shortfalls in a not-yet-saturated market back home. And Shoprite’s growing anyway, with 74 stores opened in the last 12 months and almost 40 stores planned in the next. So why then the decline in the share price? It’s possible that recent events here in SA have reduced the likelihood of an offer being made by foreign suitors anytime soon. 

Comment: The vagaries of the market, eh.

There’s a growing perception that businesses are not growing in South Africa because you can’t grow in South Africa, and if you can’t grow here, look North. So it seems with Nampak in their trading update for the three months. This from CEO Andrew Marshall: “Because of our dominant positions in most packaging markets, all we can realistically expect to do is grow the SA business in line with our major SA customers and the overall economy.” Hence, hinterland ho! The Cardboardy One currently has facilities in 12 African countries, with Angola the biggest market totalling sales of R700m+, then Nigeria (R500m) and Zambia (over R300m), with a growing footprint in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique. Nampak have achieved their three-year 2010 target of 20% revenue from Africa, and have revised their 2015 target upward to 35%.

Comment: Can this be true? That for businesses of a certain size, South Africa is so consolidated and mature a market, despite its growing urbanisation, that the only growth lies in increments tied to GDP? We hope not.

Those HEPS again. Despite Rainbow’s relatively strong sales performance in the first six months of their FY, to the tune of 15% year-on-year, their headline earnings per share were down by a disappointing 74%. This decline in profitability they attribute to the increase in input prices, with the price of local mealies increasing 28% in the six months to end December and droughts in the US and Argentina upping the cost of imported maize and soy. And then there’s dumping: producers like Brazil, say Rainbow, are flooding our market with cheap chicken, preventing businesses like Rainbow from adjusting their prices to accommodate their rising costs. In fairness though, the price of a foreign bird has been known to fluctuate, with the current weakness of the dear old ZAR making local chicken cheaper right now.

Comment: A tough market for SA’s best-selling protein, and Rainbow continues to weather it with aplomb. * with all respect due to the Parrot Sketch and Mr S.F. du Toit

Exciting news for those of you who like this kind of thing: price inflation as measured on the Consumer Price Index was 5.4% for the month of January, 0.3% lower than it was in December. No no! That’s not the exciting part: it’s this! January’s figure was arrived at using the new basket, with its updated goods and services and re-allocated weightings. Here are some of the highlights: mageu, feta cheese, hot chocolate, filtered coffee and vodka (you could have a great party with very little else come to think of it) are in, as are bricks and cement, energy-saving light bulbs ((nods sagely) That’s this new Green thing everyone’s on about, isn’t it?), tablet computers (sign of the times, eh?), hair extensions (we haven’t got around to those yet but are told we should try them sometime), and package holidays (oh, we do like to be beside the seaside!). Items that have sadly departed are samp (what country do you live in, StatsSA?), savoury biscuits (we were never much keen on those unless they had a goodish spoon of Beluga on top), dried fruits and nuts (they were great when we were in the army but now not so much), frozen vegetables, dried lentils and peas (about bleeding time, we are sure you will agree) and vienna sausages (What?!).The new basket holds 393 items compared with 402 in the old one.

Comment: So there you have. Enjoy your vodka. And of course your bricks and cement.

Massmart have mentioned that their profit for the six months to end December may be down by as much as 25%, as a result of costs related to the sale of half of the business to Walmart. Had those costs not been factored in, growth in Headline earnings Per Shares (HEPS), a reliable measure of profit, would have been in the single digits, kept on the low side by Massmart’s drive to compete with other food retailers on price as it establishes itself as a grocer.

The retail industry lost a giant this week in the venerable form of Otto Beisheim, who brought the Amercian cash n carry concept to Europe when he co-founded the Metro Group in 1964 with the Haniel and Schmidt-Ruthenbeck families. In one form or another, the Metro brand went on to play a leading role in C and C on all of the continents, including our own.

Aspen Pharmaceuticals was one of a handful of South African businesses who were spared the stock market contagion last Thursday when the JSE lost 2% of its value, its biggest fall since the dimly remembered days of early January. Our boys in their crisp white coats ended the day 1.14% to the good. Nice one.