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If you happen to be a member of the Legacy Lifestyle rewards dingis, you will be gratified to know that you are now able to earn legacy rands at all Dis-Chem stores by linking your Lifestyle Membership with your Dis-Chem benefits account. This means, according to the bumpf, that the points you earn at Legacy’s other partners (for example hotels and restaurants) can be redeemed for a roll of dental floss and some bubble bath for the missus at Di-Chem. Or indeed that the proceeds from a purchase at Dis-Chem could go towards that Pringle shirt you’ve had your eye on for a while. One of the big benefits for Legacy in all of this, is Dis-Chem’s imminent launch in Namibia and thence, they hope, elsewhere on the continent.

Comment: Here’s a bit of fine print for you to read. Loyalty programmes always come with fine print. And yes, it’s a slow news week.

Sometimes, a slow news week means you can report the really good stuff. Like this local programme Massdiscounters have got going in the Northern Cape, where they are offering 12 month workplace experience opportunities to unemployed matriculants sponsored by the Wholesale and Retail Seta. The successful applicants will work towards their National Certificate: Wholesale and Retail Operations, an NQF 2 qualification, and will spend their year in a Game store in either Upington or Kathu. As a quick trundle through the sustainability pages of their very smart website will reveal, this initiative is typical of Massmart’s Grassroots approach to community engagement, from their Direct Farm programme to their Local Supplier advocacy.

Comment: Nice one, the Men in Black. Heartfelt, relevant and convincing.

Shoprite’s growth outlook is promising, according to the fundi’s who study this stuff, despite the fact that they reported the slowest growth in eight years in their recent interims. Their Q ratio, which is the ratio of their market cap to the value of their tangible assets, is a deceptively handsome 2.62, where anything over 1 means that shareholders believe in the value of the business’ intangible assets, like brand equity, innovation, customer experience and the all-important market dominance, this latter a subject which is raised unfailingly by Mr Basson during results presentations. Part of the appeal for punter’s is the Big Red One’s bullish charge into Africa, where all its chosen markets are showing high expected GDP growth, particularly Angola, Ghana and Nigeria where growth currently exceeds 6%.

Comment: Welcoming news for those punters who have become accustomed to good news from Shoprite every results cycle.

Those AVI interims then, shall we? All pretty straightforward: revenue up 10% to R5.4billion with gross profit down a smidge from 45.9% to 44.3%. Good volume growth in Snackworks and I&J, though, with revenue up in the former to the tune of 13.3% to R1.4bn, and biscuits – those crunchy baked snacks often taken with one’s afternoon tea - up 14.1% on a 10.4% increase in volume. I&J’s operating profit was devilishly handsome too, growing 59.8% to R74m. Not so clever on the fashion front, though, with revenue growing just 7.6% to R1.54bn, and operating profit margin from 27.5% to 25.5% as a result of input cost pressures.

Comment: All things considered, though, in the light of the dodgy economy and the dodgier rand, strong stuff from the Pride of Johannesburg.

Here’s one for all of you dyed-in-the-wool, heart-on-your-sleeve, all-out, our-blood-is-diesel supply chain fans out there, and it’s a biggie. In every market in which they operate, Nestle are launching a Global On-Shelf Availability Indicator, signaling their intention to make availability their number one supply chain priority, and are doing so to become THE (sic) leaders on the shelves. And it’s not all fancy apps and granular data, although we’re sure that stuff comes into it at some point: people are the key here, namely the people of the joint supply chain and sales teams which have been set-up to partner with customers to improve OSA. And the initiative is not necessarily new either: Nestle have improved inbound service levels to customers by 5% over the last seven years, which by the tortuous, incremental standards of supply chain efficiency is a win.

Comment: We recall that back in the early 0’s Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) and the CGCSA were doing some sterling industry-wide work on this area. Perhaps time for a revisit.

The price of veggies has gone through the roof in recent weeks as heavy rains in the north take their toll on both the volumes and the quality of necessaries such as potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, pumpkins and peppers. And this on the back of a two year drought in producing areas which has seen vertiginous increases in the price not only of maize, but of the livestock it sustains, including chicken and beef. Prices for veggies are up 30%, and the next harvest might also be delayed because of wet conditions, meaning things could be steep until after May. And looking at it through a macro lense, this means that while the official rate for food inflation is around 6%, inflation on an actual basket of food could be closer to the 12-15% band, with a devastating effect on those who spend a disproportionate amount of their income on food: the poor.

Comment: It’s climate change, get used to it to the extent to which that is possible, and build policies and strategies to deal with it.

In welcome news for a certain class of reader, independent retail outlets in the UK are taking back the night from the majors, with a 30% growth in their numbers from 2012 to 2013. This at a time when ‘foodie’ culture and locavorism take the UK by storm and when the major retailers are pretty much constantly in the press for one set of shenanigans or another.

Pioneer has failed to get the Free State High Court, that noted bastion of brands and logos, to stop one Bothaville Milling from marketing a product suspiciously close to one of their own. Pioneer’s White Star Maize Meal is a market leader, Bothavilles’ Star brand is a plucky outsider. Both have red white and green packaging and feature a red star, but the similarities, according to the Court, stop there.