Singing from the same cracked and venerable hymn-sheet as his father before him, Chairman Ackerman the Younger has again, asserted the importance of the family-owned structure in Pick n Pay’s long-term success. Among his arguments: family businesses are the powerhouses of the US economy, generating 60% of the country’s employment and 78% of all new jobs created; families are in it for the long haul, enabling necessary investments for which shorter-term shareholders might not have the appetite; and the notion that family businesses might have stronger regulatory frameworks in place to avoid any unpleasantness around the dinner table regarding tricky subjects such as succession planning and dividends.

Comment: Of course, if certain families had embraced centralised distribution more quickly than they did, they wouldn’t have had to make such costly, responsible, family-enabled investments down the line…

Those interims then, for which we had to stop the mighty machinery of the Tatler presses: turnover up 9.7% to R51.1billion for the six months to December, with trading profit under a bit of pressure, up just 7.5% to R2.690billion. Africa, as always, is the exciting story for The Red Army, with turnover up 28.1% in rand terms. Putting this into perspective, the South African supermarket division grew just 7.6% but contributed R38.275 billion to the total. And while Whitey Basson does not expect trading conditions in SA to improve substantially over the next year, this will not put the brakes on expansion: Shoprite is opening 101 new Corporate stores, including 74 Supermarkets, before June of this year. “We certainly don’t want to get into the situation where 10 years from now we have a stud farm with cows which are 200 years old,” says the Groot Meneer with customary sagacity.

Comment: Still, a good bet in the long run, if you have a bit extra squirrelled way under the old mattress.

Coke and the UN are partnering, you will be pleased to know, in a scheme which aims to empower women through training in business skills and access to finance, reaching 40 000 women in South Africa, Egypt and Brazil by this time next year. This, under the auspices of Coke’s 5by20 initiative, aims to empower and enable five million women entrepreneurs across the value chain by 2020. To date, 5000 South African women have received training in financial record keeping, marketing and budgeting through the NGO Hand in hand. Globally, Coke’s fleet of six million Ekocentres – shipping containers providing fresh water, broadband and a retail outlet to poor communities – have also played a major role in the upliftment of women, who continue to bear the disproportionate brunt of the ravages of poverty.

Comment: Nice work, that country-sized business. Let’s hope that some of your peers are inspired by this worthy example.

“Who?” you ask. Why none other than our old friend Rainbow Chicken, now trading under a snappy new acronym with the inclusion of Foodcorp in the coop. With that inclusion, revenue for the six months to December increased by a whacking 95.1% to R8.8bn, with revenue for Foodcorp itself growing 5.9% to R3.9billion. Other moves to diversification, you may recall, were the acquisition of TSB Sugar RSA and TSB Sugar International (TSB) from TSB Sugar Holdings, and a joint venture in Zambia with Zambeef. But, like many a food-industry businesses this year, particularly those in the poultry sector, Rainbow Chicken’s own results, according to the business itself, were not all that, and the earnings per share were down 72%.

Comment: Still, the diversification will no doubt prove a good move for the long term sustainability of the business.

The thing about tough economic times is that people tend to lay off the hard stuff till things ease up a bit… wait a moment, that doesn’t sound right. No, here we go: revenue up 15% year on year to R9.9 billion, despite, according to new CEO Richard Rushton “muted global consumer spending associated with the protracted economic uncertainty”. And indeed, locally, sales were up only 5.2%. But globally, the margins weren’t too shabby: operating profit rose 13.4%, with headline earnings up 8.5%. And more is likely to come: the business has invested in extending its product range, improving its distribution networks and enhancing its African operations, including a bottling plant in Ghana and an unspecified project in Nigeria.

Comment: Another great South African business making big strides on the continent.

Oh dear. Inflation was up a surprisingly 5.8% year on year for the month of January, edging uncomfortably close to the 6% upper limit set by the Reserve Bank. And this means that Mrs Doubtfire over at the Bank is likely to increase the prime repo rate by another 0.5% in order to tame the profligate ways of ordinary South Africans, who splash their money around extravagantly on luxuries like paraffin, maize meal, petrol and school fees. And speaking of petrol, today will probably see another increase. One upside of last month’s rate hike was the welcome, though probably temporary, recovery of the rand against the dollar

Comment: One day, someone may come up with a better instrument for the alleviation of rising inflation other than the blunt and brutal rate hike.

Kellog’s have just appointed a new MD, sub-Saharan Africa, chap by the name of Gerald Mahinda who comes fresh and untainted by anything snappy, crackly or poppy from Diageo, where things tend to be more bubbly or indeed, fizzy. There, according to the press release, he oversaw “transformational growth”, which we assume to be a good kind of growth, on the African continent. He is big on people. Congrats and good luck sir.

This is kind of huge. Imperial Holdings Limited has just appointed Mark Lamberti, a sprightly 63, to succeed Hubert Brody as CEO. Not, you will note, as chairman of the cigar-swilling, stuffy old board, but as the roll-your-sleeves-up, get-in-amongst-it CEO. Aficionados of the Tatler will recall that Mr L. first came to our attention as a wet-behind-the-ears 57 year old, the founding CEO of a little outfit called Massmart.