In what has been described as the biggest deal of its kind in the Beloved Country for at least five years, SA’s biggest furniture business (and Europe’s No. 2), Steinhoff, has just acquired Africa’s biggest retailer, Pepkor, for the tidy sum of 62.8 billion ront. Together, the businesses will own over 6000 stores on three continents, including Poland’s biggest non-food retailer, with a combined turnover of R155billion. Here’s how the deal went down: Steinhoff buys 52.5% stake in Pepkor, which is owned by Titan Premier Investments Proprietary Ltd., which is controlled by Wiese, and another 37.1% from Brait Mauritius Ltd., subsidiary of Brait on whose board Christo Wiese sits. Awkward questions have also been raised about the purchase of further Steinhoff shares Mr. Wiese (who was already a Steinhoff shareholder) made shortly before the deal was announced. 

Comment: From hereon in, one supposes, Oom Christo will be doing his Euro transactions not with a briefcase but with a wheelbarrow.

Pick n Pay’s sensible Zambian strategy burns slowly on, with the opening last week of a $2million store in the Copperbelt district of Chingola. The store has created 118 new jobs in the district, of which 90 went to locals. The Big Blue has also committed itself to corporate social responsibility initiatives which include educational support, endearing itself further to the locals who are no doubt happy to have aisles of groceries at their disposal on a scale hitherto unseen in the area, and preventing them from travelling for their essentials to places like Kitwe, by all accounts a risky undertaking. Then there are the opportunities for local suppliers of fresh produce, which will always find a place on the racks.

Comment: Sounds like a win-win to us, as Pick n Pay brings up to 9 the total number of its Zambian stores.

Whatever Woolies might be losing to the stubbornly ongoing action by the BDS campaign, the ANC Youth League and others, it isn’t R8million a month, as has been reported. The loss was alleged by a group known as the National Coalition for Palestine (NC4P), which arrived at the figure by gauging its own support on social media. The Dapper One disputes the figure, pointing to sales which are in fact growing, not diminishing. However, the persistence of the pro-Palestinian activists has to be a thorn in the side. Last week, the AGM was disrupted not just by placard-wielding protestors outside the building but by BDS members at the meeting itself, who have taken shareholder activism to a whole new level. On the upside for Woolworths, the High Court last week ruled that the activists would not be permitted under the law to protest inside stores. Among the Israeli products you’ll continue to find on Woolies shelves are figs, pretzels and pomegranates.

Comment: This prolonged and bitter standoff is beginning to resemble a certain historical conflict of our acquaintance…

You will know Bowler Metcalf, if you do, as an Ottery-based manufacturer of soft plastic packaging. You may be surprised to learn, however, that they are also the owner of Quality Beverages, whose Jive brand is a relatively big seller in the Cape. And the big news this week is that in a deal worth R274million, QB is going to merge with KZN outfit Shoreline Beverages, owner of the locally beloved and venerable Coo-ee brand of fizzy bottled treats. Both businesses will be housed in an entity called SoftBev, which will start out with a healthy R1billion in sales per annum, and will enjoy certain efficiencies in procurement, production, marketing, distribution that singly they would have battled to achieve. And all this in order, we believe to launch an assault on the large and thirsty but previously impenetrable Gauteng market.

Comment: Good luck, those plucky second-finishers. Always nice to have some decent competition in the market.

Nice work from Pioneer Foods, under whose Pioneer One strategy revenue from continuing operations was up 9% to 17.7 billion rand for the FY through September. But wait there’s more: operating profit was up a truly whacking 46% to R1.68bn, or 35% after the 2013 sale of the embattled poultry unit Quantum Holdings. This strong performance, Pioneer says, is due to increased selling prices, exports and a beneficial sales mix as well as a strong recovery in both maize and bread sales volume and market shares in the second half. And while the bottling arrangement Pioneer had with Pepsico will wind down by mid next year, they will retain the rights to sell Lipton Ice Tea.

Comment: A great South Africa business, a neatly-honed portfolio of complementary brands, a sharp focus on efficiencies, and Bob’s your uncle.

Jad Pereira, CEO and founder of pioneering wholesale group Unitrade Management Services is on the final four of the Master Category of the World Entrepreneur Award™. The award recognises the contribution of entrepreneurs who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, and is run by no less an outfit than Ernst & Young, as an international initiative featuring participants from 50 countries. We’re holding thumbs…

GDP growth for the third quarter rose a sad and incompetent 1.4% and that is all we have to say about that.