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Here’s a big deal: Clicks are launching the first South African stores of American health and wellness retailer General Nutrition Corporation (GNC) through an exclusive franchise agreement. Phase One will see the launch of GNC products in 50 Clicks stores nationally, while Phase Two will kick off with the opening of a standalone store in Cresta Shopping Centre, Gauteng, to be followed by three more by the end of the year. According to Mr Kneale, the launch plugs into the burgeoning consumer trends of self-medication and preventative, rather than curative medicine where possible. Globally, GNC has 8400 outlets, including a sizeable franchise footprint in 55 countries. This deal has elements of both the Bodyshop project and the Boots relationship, both of which have served Clicks well.

Comment: It also positions Clicks favourably vis-à-vis rival Dis-Chem’s extensive nutritional supplements offering.

Not satisfied with the quiet inroads they’re making into the retail scene of the Northwest, Botswanan outfit Choppies are going after our punters too. They’ve announced that they’re considering a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), in order to get their paws on the largesse distributed by South Africa’s institutional investors (hello PIC?). This would assist Choppies in raising the capital necessary for its expansion plans, which to date include Zimbabwe, Zambia and perhaps Tanzania, with a partner-Tanzania being the kind of place you don’t go without an askari or two as backup. The Choppies share has traded fiercely on the Gabs JSE this year, climbing 19% in contrast with the 12% decline suffered by our own retailers back home.

Comment: And all this time we were looking for the mythical sixth retailer, of song and legend, to arise in one of our own great cities. Little did we know it would emerge shimmering from the heat of the desert beyond our borders.

And then there’s the Dapper One, who with a click of the heels and a shoot of the cuff, turned in as natty a set of interims as you could wish for, even as the larger chains flailed around seeking efficiencies and profits where they may. Turnover up 16% to R19.5billion for the six months to December, with profit up a blistering 22% from R1.3billion to R1.6billion. Going for the breakdown now: Food sales grew 15.3%, General Merchandise was up 6.9% and Clothing sales increased 10.1%. Heading south to the blasted Antipodes, sales at Country Road increased 27.5%. Ahead for Woolies: more massive next-generation emporia stores like their new flagship in Somerset West, and further expansion in size of existing small-format stores. Hardly a worry on the horizon, although the weakness on the rand could jack clothing prices up somewhat, and lead to diminished performance there.

Comment: Who wouldn’t want to be Woolies right now eh?

Venturing with increasing boldness into East Africa, now, The Stripy One has announced its acquisition outright of two complementary Kenyan businesses, Rafiki Millers and Magic Oven Bakeries. These purchases give it a foothold in a growing market in an attractive niche, where Tiger has significant expertise, so that’s all good. On the downside, things are not quite as rosy as they could be in Nigeria, where losses in their Dangote Flour Mills business, which operates in a highly competitive (not to mention chaotic) market, have proved to be a drag on the profitability of the entire group. But measures are in place, we are told, that will improve the outlook down the line.

Comment: The march of Tiger into Africa is one of the more exciting things going on in FMCG right now.

Hot trend alert! South African food businesses are heading into other African countries and buying up all the millers and bakers they can lay their hands on. Tiger in Kenya, as reported upstairs, then closer to home, Premier Foods have just purchased – again, outright – for R100million, Ngwane Mills, the wheat and flour milling operation of the Ngwane Group. This, after the purchase of stakes in Swazi outfits Mister Bread and Swazi United Bakeries, of which stakes they placed under the umbrella of Premier Swazi Bakers. Back home, you might recall, Premier operates one maize mill, five wheat mills and 11 bakeries, distributing the results under some major brands, including Iwisa mielie meal, Snowflake flour and Blue Ribbon bread.

Comment: Shrewd moves. People in Africa are not going to lose their taste for the freshly-baked anytime soon.

You may have been gratified to read, if you did, that retail sales were up 3.5% for the month of December, despite the dire predictions of the economists that they would be closer to 2.7%. But don’t get too excited: they were up 4.4% in November, and as the interest rate increase bites, are likely to still head further south. And growth for the entire year was just 2.8%, down from 4.6% in 2012. This may be attributed to a range of factors: high consumer indebtedness after the unsecured lending frenzy, the resulting squeeze on easy credit, higher fuel prices, the weaker rand, spiraling food costs and the worst level of consumer confidence in about 11 years, for starters. And of course, high unemployment – although the marginally good news there is that this number dropped in the fourth quarter of 2013, from 24.5% of the population to 24.1%, or 4.83million people.

Comment: On the bright side, while our current position can best be characterised as stagnant, we are not in an actual recession.

Le Grand Bleu is in a spot of trouble with the unions – specifically FAWU, 220 of whose members went out on strike at Unilever’s tea plant in Pietermaritzburg, whence Joko, Glen and Lipton hail, and haven’t been back since. At issue is a 9% pay increase that the union is demanding as well as the new grading system which would allow Unilever to employ inexperienced youth for less – to the benefit, it might be argued, of the youth themselves and the economy, but not, obviously, of FAWU.

Nestle and L’Oreal are not breaking up, they’re just taking a breather and maybe seeing other people for a bit. Or such is the message on the news that L’Oreal is buying back 8% of its shares from Nestle, which still retains a sizeable 23% of the business. This will enable them to boost their earnings per share in the short term but the long term? Unclear. 

Fun fact: Nestle bought its share in L’Oreal in 1974 to prevent the cosmetics house from being nationalized in the event of a socialist takeover in France.