Shoprite(ish) There’ll always be an England
At last, perhaps, it may be revealed why Oom Christo likes to pack a few extra pounds in the LV carry-on when holidaying in the UK. He’s hoping, you see, to introduce northerners to the joys of cheap takkies and cut-price school uniforms through his new venture, Pepkor UK. Which, you will be riveted to know, is headed up by two diamond geezers, ex-Asda CE Andy Bond and sidekick Mark Elliott. Excited speculation up and down that normally imperturbable archipelago is that the trio may be planning an approach to Sir Philip Green for the purchase of his retail outfit British Home Stores (BHS, don't you know, fwha, fwha!). The idea, it appears, would be to leverage Pepkor’s monstrous buying power to compete on price in the UK’s formidable retail sector. Pepkor has stores all over Africa, in the brutish Antipodes, and in Poland.
Comment: And you know, sticking it to the Brits after all these years couldn’t be all bad, could it?