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More general musings on the Big Red One and its drive for territory. Did you have any clue as to the scale of their ambitions on The Continent Formally, And Unfairly, Known As Dark? Gather round the tamboetie fire and have a listen to this: The African strategy according to no less a personage than the eminent explorer Sir James Wellwood Basson, is Shoprite’s “future growth driver”. Right now they dwarf the efforts of other retailers on the continent, with 144 supermarkets in 16 African countries, but this is small potatoes, or indeed yams, compared with their ambitions: they’re involved in more new store negotiations than ever before, with plans for 175 supermarkets in the pipeline, 41 of which are planned for Nigeria and 43 in Angola.

Comment: The competitors, when they arrive, may have to content themselves with selling groundnuts and airtime by the sides of dusty roads.

Last week, the Men in Black were waxing despondent about their upcoming interims, given the high costs associated with having sold the family silver to the Americans. This week, the picture seems a little sunnier: sales growth of 14.7% for the six months to 23 December 2012, although operating profit was up by just 6.1% as expected. Gross margin tells a different story, though, climbing 18.3% thanks to sterling contributions from Massbuild and Makro and Game Africa, where the arrival of Foodco has been well received by punters. Game South Africa, not so much, with sales growth of a paltry, if we may use the term, 1% – a slide Massmart are attributing to the embattlement of the middle income consumer. But food and liquor across the Group is on the up to the tune of 19.6%, with the contribution of the category now sitting at 54.4%.

Comment: A business in a state of rapid transformation, making some necessary sacrifices on the way to a no doubt glorious destiny.

More of those interims, then, we suppose, this time from Distell, who upped their sales 9.3% to R8.7billion, with volumes up 6.6%. Operating expenses 10% higher‚ the company nudged its operating profit up by 5.3%. While increased duties eroded the sales of spirits, sales of ready to drinks continued to please, especially those of Hunter’s and Savannah. Wine was also under a bit of pressure, although Nederburg did very well, outperforming competitors in its category by value to the tune of 32%. And wines for export were also a winner, with Distell growing its share of volume to 27%. Sub-Saharan Africa was especially pleasing, contributing 64.4% of foreign revenue to the business.

Comment: A versatile stable of brands, most of which people seem eager to imbibe. Nice one.

Goodness gracious us: here’s a jolly old turn up for the books – while we were off doing something else, Indian drugmaker Cipla has been attempting to buy South Africa’s third-largest pharmaceutical crowd, which by a gobsmacking coincidence goes by the handle Cipla Medpro South Africa. And this is a serious business: they’ve just upped their initial offer by 17%, taking the sum to a princely R4.5billion for the business, lock, stock and two smoking test tubes, which it would be their intention to delist. After their initial offer, Cipla Medpro won a R1.4billion government drug contract, which rather upped the ante – although with the exit of the current BEE partner it might also create a sticky issue for such contracts in the future. And if you wish the plot to thicken any further, Cipla are Cipla Medpro’s biggest drug supplier. Apart from that, they are interested in the “operational synergies in the African market.”

Comment: But then, who isn’t?

Some of those numbers for the IMPERIAL Logistics interims which they were kind enough to release in the last week or so: revenue up 18 glorious % to R45billions of rands (SA), with operating profit up a solid 12% to R2.9billion, and HEPS (the true mark of a business’ profitability) up 14%, which is nice for the punters. Interestingly, the logistics side of the outfit continues to edge upward in terms of contribution, by 2 percentage points to 34% since December 2011, with more to come as IMPERIAL eyes opportunities for the division in Africa and Europe. The logistics profit shrunk by 2 percentage points YOY to 24%, due in part to the transport workers’ strike and to challenging market conditions generally.

Comment: Still, the lifeblood of the industry, eh. And nice that they can continue to make a shekel when times are tough.

We don’t just have horsemeat in our burgers in South Africa. Oh, no, we have donkey. Goat. Water buffalo, for goodness sake. All of these fine sources of protein, as well as “undeclared vegetable matter” were found in up to 68% of the 139 minced meats, burger patties, deli meats, sausages and dried meats that were tested by the white-coated worthies of the Universteit van Stellenbos’ Animal Sciences Department. And it gets worse: to add an insult worthy of a World Cup cricket final to injury, a study by the University of the Western Cape found that 100 of 146 biltong samples tested contained “undeclared meat species” including horse, pork and, we can barely bring ourselves to type the word, kangaroo.

Comment: We prefer our extraneous protein to have four legs, thank you very much. Or six, at a push. But not, in the name of all that is chewy and cholesterol-ridden, two.

In a blow for continuity, which is the dowdy, unsung sibling of chaos and drama, Richard van Rensburg gets to keep his job as Deputy CEO of Pick n Pay, a position he held between Nick Badminton’s resignation and Richard Brasher’s appointment. He will carry on being responsible for IT, supply chain and property, but will also focus on “critical areas that are important” (sic) to increasing efficiencies and finding further opportunities for growth. Which pretty well covers it, we think.

Massmart have dropped a ton of wedge on re-engineering their supply chain, with the first phase due for completion by the end of this year, by which time they we will have completed three Massdiscounters RDCs, three Makro regional warehouses, one Cambridge DC and one Massbuild national DC. According to Mr Pattison, “the benefits of these investments, alongside investments in skills and systems, should be seen in the next five to ten years as the network is optimised.” Bit of a medium to long-term vision then.