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Oh dear. Massmart’s annuals, out last week and faithfully documented in a special release to our many valued clients in the consumer goods industry, were not all that. While turnover was up 10.4% to 78.2billions of ront for the year which ended with December, net profit declined 8.2% to R1.13bn, and headline earnings per share, which are generally a handy veil for any number of blemishes on the P&L, and are thus held up by businesses as The One True Measure of Profitability, were down 10.2%. Why? you cry, weeping into your portfolio. Well, being in bed with the dollar doesn’t help, when the rand’s as weak as it is. And then there was the interest paid on property acquisitions over the past couple years. Not to mention the decline in the fortunes of the dear old South African consumer, and similar travails in some of the oil-dependent economies to the north. But next year will be better, we are assured. Game’s food programme is on track, with food sales up 19% to R3.2billion, and accounting for 18% of the total. And a store opening binge is on the cards for Africa, where South African businesses are increasingly going to offset the dire trading conditions at home. 

Comment: The reinvention of Massmart as a grocery giant is a job of years rather than months. We look forward to next year’s results with interest.

More on those Shoprite interims (turnover up 12.5% to R57.5bn, profit up 11.5% to R3bn, sales up 12%, remember them now?). According to Mr James W Basson, who runs the show, the last six months were better than the previous ones because of the lower petrol price and not much else. Shoprite publicly called on all players in the value chain to pass these saving on to punters, and to invest in job creation, which the Big Red One did to the tune of 13,000 new hires in the last fiscal. On the downside, having saved R4million in transportation costs for the month of December, Shoprite was forced to fork over R8million in diesel to keep the generators running during load shedding. Mr B is worried about the future of power in South Africa, specifically when it comes to food security. 100 farmers, he says, provide 70% of the food sold in his stores, and these are not operations which run on wind pumps and paraffin lanterns. 

Comment: Mr B is a shrewd operator and a great – if justifiably worried – South African.

Under the relatively recent leadership of Phil Roux – he joined in April 2013 – Pioneer’s share price has more than doubled, and earnings were up a handsome 7% in the three months to December. How’d they do that? Operational efficiencies, natch, but also a ruthless weeding out of underperforming assets, which to date include the poultry, egg and feeds business Quantum Foods, and the Pepsi bottling operation. And the word on the street is that the Moir’s biscuit business could be the next to go – Roux has spoken of “harvesting out” a profitable business unit that is not a major contributor to turnover. This will give the business renewed focus on its major earners, Sasko, White Star, Weetbix, Ceres, Liquifruit, Safari and Spekko. And perhaps on a couple of minor strategic acquisitions – or even a major deal, if the more irresponsible speculators are to be heeded. 

Comment: The rise of businesses like Pioneer, RCL and Premier will be one of the big themes of our next decade in the dear old Tatler, you mark our words.

It seems like the influence of Bidvest might have been the shot in the arm, so to speak, that Adcock Ingram were looking for. That’s if their interims are to be believed, and we have no reason to suppose that they shouldn’t be: a 1% rise in turnover to R2.7bn for the six months to December, and a gross profit of R993m. Small potatoes, maybe, but cast your mind back to the disastrous numbers in recent years. And HEPS were way up, to the tune of 38%. This performance on the back of a turnaround strategy which includes a focus on cash flows and cash management, and the reorganisation of the business into separate units, most of which achieved their targets for the period. And for those which didn’t – additional marketing budget will be provided to help them pick up the pace of recovery. 

Comment: Will Adcock shortly be snapping at the expensively-shod heels of Aspen Pharma? Time will tell.

Last week, ratings agency Fitch mentioned that they were considering downgrading South Africa’s credit rating after the delivery of the budget. Which was not what rookie Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s speechwriters were hoping to hear. Fitch would have liked to hear more about how we are going to sort out our ratio of debt to GDP, our public finances, our declining economic growth and how we intend to keep the lights on – areas in which the Budget Speech was tellingly thin on detail. Other bad news last week was that Bloomberg left us at third on their list of most miserable economies in the world, behind South American basket cases Venezuela and Argentina, but pipping Ukraine – a country in a state of civil war – at the post. The reason for this, the bow-tied ones tell us, is our heady combination of low employment, poor economic growth and high inflation. 

Comment: An embarrassment and a shame.

This week Pick n Pay turned 48; and Fruit & Veg City 22 – Happy Birthday to them both. This as you have no doubt noted makes them both artistic, sensitive, dreamy Pisceans, whose horoscopes generally start: Oh dear, Pisces!