And in other slow news, The Big Blue is taking to the great blue yonder with the latest tweak to its Smart Shopper loyalty programme. Pick n Pay has partnered with the Avios Group, which runs the British Airways frequent flyer programme, to offer smart shoppers a chance to take to the air with the red white and blue when the fancy takes them and the points have stacked up sufficiently. Avios is keen to expand its global footprint at a time when frequent flyers are becoming more jaded about the value of such programmes and distributing their loyalty willy nilly depending on who’s got the cheapest flight on any given day. Conversely, supermarket loyalty programmes are doing rather well internationally. Punters will be able to spend their Avios points on purchases using an Avios credit card, and to buy petrol at BP’s. 

Comment: A good fit, albeit one imagines with a rather niche market among PnP shoppers.

With stores in Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique and Botswana, and a 35% interest in Spar Zimbabwe, currently on a drive into Zambia, the Jolly Green one has opted for a strategy of slow movement and consolidation on the Mother of All Continents. Until now that is. Now they’re gaaning all Boetie on us and heading Angola toe, planning a store in Luanda with an as yet unnamed local partner, that should open in the next six months. Spar South Africa will be providing most of the product and all of the logistics, which is after all what it does best, but sourcing some stuff locally, presumably on the perishables side. Angola, it will interest you to know, has GDP of $114billion, making it the third biggest sub-Saharan economy after SA and Nigeria, and growing at 6.5%, over three times the speed of our own.

Comment: And thus a no-brainer for Spar as they shift into full Africa mode.

After their somewhat muted results last week, a nevertheless confident Massmart have sprung back with the announcement that they’re entering the tricky market of building supplies for the poorer punter with a new store brand called Build Rite. Build Rite goes up against retailers like Iliad and Cashbuild, both of whom are demonstrably struggling a little right now, but young Mr P. is undeterred, arguing that self-builders in poorer or more rural areas are looking for the finishing touches like nice mouldings and skirtings, and are dissatisfied with the bog-standard range of plumbing fittings currently on offer in that market. Massmart has enjoyed great success over the years with their Builder’s brand, which is aimed a little higher up the economic ladder as it were.

Comment: Brands like Spar’s Build It has fared pretty well across the spectrum, so given Massmart’s reach into the lower end and its sophisticated supply chain, this may be one to watch.

When it comes to chicken, it seems, there’s only one story right now: the devastation of the local industry at the hands of cheap Brazilian imports. And lest there was any doubt in your mind: this week Rainbow – the biggest business in the industry and a model of both innovation and governance - announced a get this 94% drop in profits for the year to June, from R266.8milion to R16.7million. Of the 400,000 tonnes imported annually, Brazil contributes, if that’s the right word, about 50%, while the EU is making strides in the chicken pieces market, carving out a 70% share. Duties are currently sitting between 5% and 27%; the industry is calling for something a little closer to 82%, in line with the protective tariffs deployed by other markets.

Comment: Don’t give up on Rainbow yet – with the Foodcorp acquisition they’re steaming into other categories, and are making inroads into Africa also.

Who’s that cheerful fellow over there, whistling Sarie Marais, hands in the pockets of his Teesav shorts and a jaunty spring in his chestnut-brown Grasshoppers? That’s right, it’s a dairy farmer, a breed the Milk Producers Organisation (MPO) is pretty buoyant about their prospects these days. While we have lost many farmers to the global downturn, it is true, the ones who remain are producing more milk than ever before, while predicting that prices will head northward for the next two years or more. This MPO attribute to the continued growth of SA’s middle class, and other unspecified factors.  And to qualify – the industry has just emerged from an annus horribilis, with prices flat and demand slow.

Comment: Giving the farmers some retrospective whining still to catch up on.

The CGCSA Summit, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest, is the centrepiece of the Industry’s year – a conference now in its second decade and attracting an ever more influential lineup of both speakers and delegates. This year’s do, which will be held at The Forum, Johannesburg on 15 and 16 October, will be tackling some major themes: global and local trends, consumer and shopper marketing, the supply chain and efficiency, regulatory and industry issues and winning at the Point of Purchase. Across these categories there will also be a focus on Africa, where most of our major retailers are focusing their efforts, and on sustainability, fast becoming a competitive advantage for businesses taking it seriously. Some of the industry’s leading thinkers, both locally and internationally, are contributing their time and insights to the agenda, which promises a packed, relevant and exciting two days for your team, whatever their area of focus or level of experience.

Comment: : To get your early bird discounts, find out more about the agenda or explore sponsorship opportunities, click here

According to the WWF, if we continue using the resources at our disposal at the rate we are, we’ll need another whole world by 2030, which as anyone of a certain age can tell you is just around the corner. South Africa is particularly bad, globally – our ecological footprint, you see, is measured at 2.59 per person per hectare, which indicates how much biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity needs to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates. Much of ours comes from our carbon footprint, in a country where almost everyone relies on small, fuel inefficient vehicles to cover the big distances we need to every day. The time has come for a radical change in the way we arrange our lives and run our businesses.

Comment: But what will the shareholder’s say? Apart from “Aargh, choke, splutter”, like everyone else, that is?

Pick n Pay has taken the rough decision to retrench 400 workers at head and regional offices in an effort to cut costs after their 30.8% drop in full-year profit. This number includes the very few employees who opted to take the voluntary retrenchment announced a month or so ago at a weeks pay per annum with the business.

Clicks have issued one of those tersely worded SENS warnings in Courier New to the effect that a subsidiary of the Group are intent on buying something in the order of R50bar of the company’s shares in the next little while. What can this mean? Blowed if we know, but we’ll let you know when we do, if you get our drift.