Continuing its march into the wild and lawless bad lands of Africa …. what was that? Oh, sorry … South Africa … is Botswanan retailer Choppies, which just posted a very tidy set of interims indeed. Revenue up 24% to $233million, with 77% of that coming from Botswana stores – although growth-wise South Africa at 14% is outperforming Botswana at 8%, due mainly to new store openings. In South Africa, Choppies now runs 17 stores (mainly in Limpopo and the Northwest) and an 18,000m2 DC in Rustenburg, employing over 2,000. Back home, they’ve beefed things up a bit with the acquisition of SupaSave and MegaSave, a retailer and wholesaler respectively, minor players in the Botswana FMCG sector but building blocks in the ambitious $1billion edifice which Choppies aspires to  build in the next two or so years.

Comment: A great business to which some of our own retailers are probably looking nervously round about now.

If you’re looking at store numbers rather than floorspace, Engen’s Quickshop bestrides the African Continent like a latter day Rhodes or smaller, less red Shoprite. Let’s have a look at those numbers, shall we? Right then: 15 territories (or geographies, whichever you prefer), 30 new generation shops in Namibia, 30 in Botswana, 6 planned for Zim and 15 in the DRC, where hitherto one had not imagined that late night snackage while one puts 20 bucks of 93 into the CitiGolf was much of a priority, but there you go, 3 revamped sites in Zambia, 1 in Malawi and 3 in Mozambique, which is also looking at adding Corner Bakeries into the mix. The new gen stores come to you courtesy of the catchily-titled Project Reinvigorate, so named to throw the competition off the scent.

Comment: Look we’ll be honest here: the actual numbers are hard to come by. But who would have thought, eh?

22,000 spazas and other independent retailers will shortly be able to receive payment via bankcard, thanks to a partnership between Blue Label Telecoms and Mastercard. Plastic, as you may have found is a safe and convenient alternative to cash for both shopper and the retailer and with this arrangement the latter will be able to cash in their chips as it were on the same day, enabling them to buy stock for the next day’s trading. It will also enable these retailers to offer cash-backs and POS withdrawals. Of the 22,000 stores, 15,000 will receive new terminals, while the remaining 7,000 will get upgrades to their existing Mastercard Mobile units.

Comment: This is huge, welcome and about time. Nice.

Sometimes it’s not all about operating profit and shareholder value. Last week, Coke launched their international prototype Ekocenter in Heidelberg, with no lesser a personage than Condoleezza Rice in attendance to cut the ribbon. An Ekocenter is a self-described “town centre in a box”, a solar-powered shipping container with a shopfront, a broadband connection and a Slingshot water purifier pumping gallons of the good stuff for use by remote rural punters in whose communities these big branded boxes will land. The Ekocenters will, it is envisaged be partially funded by Coke and partially by NGOs, development corporations, government and other businesses, and will be run by a global battalion of selected and trained women entrepreneurs. It’s a potentially huge move – for the communities who will benefit from the fresh water (possibly free), the electricity and other services, and for Coke who will pioneer potentially thousands of new markets globally.

Comment: Big-hearted philanthropy or enlightened self-interest? There's a question we'll leave to the philosophers and PR artists amongst our readers.

Everywhere you look, chicken is taking flight, and not the soaring, victorious kind either. Last Thursday, agricultural conglomerate Afgri announced devastating losses in their poultry business, and but one day later, Pioneer announced that it would be “unbundling” (an industry term meaning “to run screaming from”) Quantum, its own poultry, erm, wing. Quantum, Pioneer announced, would be separately listed within 12 months subject to “any other acceptable corporate action", and would be regarded as an “asset-held-for-sale”, ring fenced as a separate legal entity. This marks new-CEO Phil Roux’s first big strategic move, and it looks so far like a bold and defensive one.

Comment: With the poultry sector under such strain, it's probably a sound decision.

How is the old balance of payments anyway, you enquire in passing. Well thank you very much, we’re awfully glad you asked, how very kind. As it happens, the “old balance of payments” as you put it, has been in a deficit for the last 19 months, with no sign of relief on the horizon. The figures for June and July were R7.7billion and R14.2billion respectively, for example, in part because punters continue to buy cars and suchlike on a weakened rand, pushing things up on the import side. And while exports might reasonably be expected to recover on a weaker rand, strike-related disruptions in the mining and manufacturing sectors are likely to take their toll. The generally weak local economy, with growth idling along at 2% on a good day doesn’t help either.

Comment: Anybody out there with a plan? An inspiring speech? A few kind words? Anyone?

Again with the obscure SENS announcements, but reading between the lines it looks to us like SPAR is lending R100million-odd to its employee share scheme to enable employees to exercise their options on the shares in the scheme, and further that this loan will not have an appreciable effect on SPAR’s ability to get stuff done. Nice one, that jolly green retailer.