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Last week we mentioned in passing that SPAR had big plans for the one five. These, to rehash, include 35 spanking new stores, and refurbs of 180 existing ones. Also a whole passel – 45 to be exact – of new TOPS at SPARs. 2014 turned out to be a year of some consolidation for the core business, with 19 new SPARs opening (a touch under the targeted 23) and 17 underperforming ones closing. TOPS on the other hand opened 51, way ahead of the predicted 35. Build it opened 18, in a tough environment which included such hazards as industrial action and cheap imported cement. Longer range plans include the new DC in Lanseria, which hit a speedbump in the form of zoning issues, but which Mr O’C. assures us will be up and running by 2019. And then of course there’s the huge but still slightly mysterious acquisition of 80% of Irish retail group BWG, giving SPAR the footprint on the Emerald Isle and in southwest England after which we had no idea they were hankering. 

Comment: Although Mr O’Connor’s own presumptively Hibernian roots might be a factor…

Choppies, as recently documented, opened shop in Zim in 2013 and now has 18 stores up there, with plans for 30 by the end of the year. All well and good. Question is, why? Partially, of course, it’s that competition, scared off by a recent history of instability. Partially, and on a related note, it’s that the growing demand for formal retail was becoming so strident it could no longer be ignored. And significantly, according to CEO Ram Ottapathu, it’s because Zim has the deepest talent pool in all of Africa, which makes it a heck of a lot easier to open stores. In other Choppies related news, they apparently had a roughish year in the Beloved Country, where like so many other businesses, their first-half performance was affected by industrial action in other sectors. Next up for Choppies: Zambia and Tanzania, where opportunities for formal retail abound – in Zambia, retail is still 80% informal. 

Comment: Refreshing words on talent from Mr Ottapathu, clearly something of a visionary, and heading up a very exciting business.

Last year, plucky newcomer Rhodes Food raised R600bar when it listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE). Now it’s in a spendin’ mood, and its first acquisition is likely to be Wellington-based juice business Pacmar, for the not insignificant sum of 165milion ronts. Pacmar has a poetically named bouquet of brands, covering both juices and wines, which include such exotic blooms as Wilde, Amazing, Zing and Crystal Falls. Rhodes itself, of course, makes jam, canned meats and fruits, and juice concentrates, and owns Magpie pies and posh pommie long-life fruit brand Trout Hall. The business has customers in Europe, the Far East, Australasia, Russia, US, Canada and the Middle East. Locally, it supplies Woolies with private label meals, ready to eat, and abroad, Waitrose and Tesco with private label canned fruit. 

Comment: With its share price tilted gently skyward, Rhodes is one to watch.

Good news for Illovo from Zambia, where the local produced a record 424,000-odd tons of the sweet stuff for the milling season ending December ’14. Zambia, you will recall, contributes almost a third of Illovo’s profit every year. Not only this, but it’s an African record: the highest tonnage of sugar ever produced in Africa by a single factory. This after last month’s less than saccharine interims, which saw a group-wide decline in profits of 14% to R1.39bn driven thither by lower cane and sugar production and falling sugar prices. The better to avoid the vagaries of the industry in future, Illovo intend adding an alcohol distillery to the Zambian plant, in keeping with their vision of generating 20% of operating profit from sources other than what you can actually put in your tea. 

Comment: A good idea, as Europe deregulates its sugar industry, dropping quotas for local producers and creating more competition for the likes of Illovo over there.

Believe it or nay, but the prospects for this year we have no option but to call 2015 are a lot rosier, or perhaps just a little less bleak, than the annus horribilis just gone. While the growth data for 2014 has yet to be released by the hoary sages over at StatsSA, it is unlikely to come in at much over 1.5%. This year, so the economists tell us, we could be looking at anything between 2% and 2.4%. This due in part to Eskom, whose vaunted Medupi power plant is to come online in the second half, which is when much of this growth can be expected. Global and local demand, if it materialises, will also help, as will the expected decision of the SARB to keep the interest rate where it is for a bit, as inflation at 5.8% remains within the government’s targeted range of 3-6%. All of this, of course, should see an uptick in consumer spending as wages head north and employment increases. 

Comment: But keep your shirt on, for goodness sake. It’s 2% we’re talking about. Or maybe 2.4.

Pick n Pay Namibia has a new Managing Director, you will be pleased to know, a Mr Norbert Wurm, a CA who served as FD there and who takes over from Henry Ferris, who moves on after 20 years of service. Pick n Pay Namibia is a subsidiary of the Teutonically-named Ohlthaver and List Group of Companies, which also owns Namibian Breweries and Hangana Seafoods. Congrats and best wishes, appropriately distributed.

Who, you might ask, is Godrej? The Godrej Group is an Indian outfit, which acquired South African hair dye business Rapidol, and will shortly be acquiring braids manufacturer Frika Hair. And they’re doing it for the relatively modest sum of Rs75 crore, you do the math, it’ll do you good as you ease into your January spreadsheets.