After those iffy interims, in which profits were hit by a combo of DC openings, costs associated with the Walmart deal and pressure on Game’s credit-strapped, middle-income shoppers, one should expect a rebound from Massmart some way down the track. But not, it appears, before that leafy bend just coming into view: sales were up just 11.4% in the first eight weeks of 2013, down from last year’s more strapping 14.7%. Mr Pattison appears to be in it for the long haul, however, ruefully acknowledging the impact of the capex in his eight DCs over the past five years (billions, we’re told, somewhere between three and five of them), but pointing out that the DCs will be needed if growth is to continue over the next 10 to 15 years.

Comment: Still, with the likes of Shoprite breaking open the old war chest as Massmart intrudes more deeply into the food market, the head that wears the crown will rest uneasy for some time to come.

Loyalty is quite the thing these days, with every one of the majors dipping their toes into that inviting water, even when they’re pretending that they aren’t. This, perversely, as punters become ever more profligate, buying this from Woolies and that from Checkers as the fancy takes them. So let’s revisit, for a moment, the place where it all started, inside an unassuming though successful chain of stores selling makeup and inexpensive white goods, circa 1996. Clicks now has over 4 million active ClubCard members, who account for 77% of total sales, with a basket size double that of non-members. And the business has grown substantially on the data they’ve harvested over the years: who the most loyal customers are, where they shop, how frequently, and what they buy.

Comment: Which would have been the way to do it.

As South Africa’s friendliest retailer turns 50, let’s have a look at some of the other numbers which make up the business. The Group employs about 4,000 people, whose main roles are in distribution, support and marketing, but the headcount goes up to around 65,000 if you count all the stores in the group – which now total 1,740 under their various trading brands, with 900 SPAR stores in South Africa. Combined turnover is R68billion, up quite substantially from R24billion when Captain Hook took the helm in 2006. And being a business primarily concerned with distribution, SPAR’s 345 trucks and 400 trailers travel 35 million kilometres a year to bring the good stuff to their customers in the trade and thence to you. 

Comment: A heck of a business, with more impressive numbers, we suspect, to come.

While we applaud the sterling work of our many readers in the consumer goods value chain to reach their target market, it’s not our practice to single them out for their endeavours in this regard. Unless those endeavours are particularly noteworthy, which this one is: to launch their new 2-in-1 product with a touch of Comfort, Unilever’s Omo have established four pop-up laundries around the country, where punters may drop off up to five items of laundry in the morning, then collect them in the afternoon, washed, folded and fragrant, accompanied by a free sachet of powder. And while the very concept of pop-up shops generally curls our teeth, these are some hardworking little emporia, processing some 630 washes per day, reaching 10,000 happy customers and giving away 300,000 samples.

Comment: Commendable stuff, that multinational marketer of domestic essentials.

Here’s an interesting one: Grindrod, best known for ships, trucks, trains and great heaping piles of cash is taking an undisclosed stake, as far as we can make out from the rather cagey communications on offer, in the Victoria Foods milling division of CFI Holdings of Zimbabwe. Grindrod, you see, already have a division specialising in grains, soya bean meal and oil seeds, managing supply chain stuff for customers from South Africa to south east Asia and points in between. The purchase of shares in Victoria Foods will enable it to both add value to and extract it from a key supply chain, while providing CFI with a capital boost for the expansion of its operations and its return to greater profitability.

Comment: Or, quite honestly, it could be the other way around, so opaque was the announcement.

If you’d got all steamed up about Bidvest’s approach to Adcock for the purchase of the business, you weren’t alone, and not in a good way. In response to Mr Brian Joffe’s tactfully worded letter suggesting that Adcock and its shareholders would be better off in Bidvest’s capacious stable, Adcock and their attorneys dashed off a ten page opus in which they took on the legalities rather than the spirit of the Bidvest offer, about which apparently no word had been mentioned until the arrival of the missive. Adcock do remain open to an approach, however, provided the approacher dots the relevant i’s and crosses the applicable t’s. The view among pundits, however, is that a rebuffed Joffe seldom treads the same path twice.

Comment: A pity – Adcock’s brands and Bidvest’s brawn would have been an interesting combo.

This you may know, but Transnet are one year into a seven-year spending spree in which they will fork out R300billion on upgrading the infrastructure which is not only the lifeblood of our economy but also has the potential to properly open up Africa for business. Currently, just 11% of inland freight moves my rail, with the rest going by road. This is set to change, as Transnet improves its customer relations, upgrades its equipment, improves its port infrastructure and trains its staff. The idea is to up freight volumes from 200 megatons now to 350 of them in 2019. Of note to this great sector we call home, Transnet will be reducing its tariffs on manufactured goods while upping its fees on ores and minerals. 

Comment: In acknowledgement of the fact, one presumes, that what we really need to get us out of bed in the morning is an industrialised economy.

Consumer confidence is at its lowest ebb since the dark days of load shedding, when everything seemed to be going to heck in a handbasket. Strikes, a deterioration for the outlook of fixed investment, poor job creation and the prospect of more power cuts are depressing an already worried consumer base and setting the scene for a slum in retail which already seems underway. Not mentioned by economists is a signal lack of leadership at the highest levels in our country, without which – basket time.

… but Tesco are intent on launching a new franchise model with independent local retailers. Excitingly titled End of the Line One Stop, the operation is, according to Tesco, aimed at “helping good independent family businesses make an even greater success of their stores.”

It’s not often that the big retail players in this market poach each other’s key resources. Presumably, because if they did it would be open season and no one would get any work done for the clatter of headhunters’ heels up and down the corridors. But if it should happen that an announcement in this regard is made in the next weeks, remember that you read it first here. Or don’t, if it isn’t.