A quick update for you from the arid West: since the demise of parent company Metcash, Metro Namibia has passed (after a couple of false starts) into the hands of the massive and very capable Sefalana Group, dealer in consumer goods, property, vehicles dealerships, agriculture and construction equipment and manufacturers of grain-based products, soaps and detergents, inter alia, listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange which looks like it could be worth a punt. Since the takeover in mid-2014, Metro has gone from strength to strength, trading in twelve locations from Keetmanshoop to Kutima Mulilo. Sefalana, which owns various retailers, cash & carries and hypers, is also a member of Unitrade Management Services (UMS), who bring a lot of muscle to the operation, including bulk buying, marketing and branding, finance and IT, sales and operational support and training. 

Comment: Sounds like a match made in wholesale heaven.

Walmart shareholders: brace yourself for some heavy spending in the next 18-24, as the Bentonville Behemoth invests in inventory management, instore pick-up infrastructure for online orders, pricing on its private label lines and salary hikes for its previously-beleaguered workforce. All of this, we are told by Doug McMillon who has been driving the bus this twelvemonth past, in order to pick up market share and improve sales, the big drivers for its turnaround plan. Thus far, the punters have not been notably enthusiastic about the spending, with the share declining 3.2% on the day the news broke about the wage increases. Analysts seem more sanguine about it however, believing that investments in wages and training are going to put Walmart stores on a better footing in the long run. 

Comment: You think it’s easy, turning round an eighteen wheeler? Just try it.

In all the excitement (Did I miss something? Ed.) of the past couple of weeks, we neglected to mention the merger of two of the world’s biggest food companies (See me. Ed.) viz. and namely Kraft and Heinz, which will have a combined value of $80billion. The merger was orchestrated by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Heinz owner, the excitable (and no doubt soccer-mad) Brazilian investment group 3G Capital. 3G are a big deal in their own right, having spearheaded the takeover of Anheuser-Busch by InBev and making a splash in food services with the acquisition of Tim Horton’s in Canada and Burger King in the US. And wherever they go, sadly, they seem to cut jobs in the name of savings – $1.5billion of which are reputedly on offer in this deal. 

Comment: Tense times for the workforces at the respective businesses then, and a potential blow to diversity on the shelves and competitive pricing for consumers.

What’s all this then? Nampak have gone and flogged their Flexibles division to the bleeding Aussies, that’s what! Australian packaging giant Amcor will cough up somewhere between R250 and R300 bar, we’re told. Nampak Flexibles turns over about R1.1 billion a year at its three plants, and numbers among its blue chip clients such luminaries as Unilever, Mars, Simba, Tastic and Tiger Brands Ltd, and gives its new owner a coveted toehold on the African continent, with its limitless growth opportunities. Funnily enough, that’s Nampak’s thinking too: by shedding some of their lower-margin assets (Flexibles was bring in 3 to 4%), they feel they’ll be able to spend a bit of wedge on the higher-margin opportunities north of our borders, notably in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and Angola, where 18-20% is considered a more reasonable return. They’re also, by the by, selling their corrugated and tissue divisions and Nampak Recycling, in separate transactions.

Comment: Much as we dislike their cricketers, we value the Australians for their dollar, and their heartening confidence in our economy.

After seeing off an acquisition attempt by rival SABMiller just six months ago, you’d think that Heineken would have a jaunty spring in its step and a click in its heels, but no. Quite the opposite, in fact: sales have been flagging, growing just 0.1% for the last FY, the healthy profit after tax of 11% notwithstanding. So they’re shaking things up, bigtime, somewhat unfairly losing three top execs including a couple responsible for the pleasing growth of the last decade, and assimilating their once-mighty central and eastern European division into their Africa and Middle Eastern operation, the Russians having returned to Vodka with their newly rediscovered patriotic swagger, and not drinking decadent western brewski’s so much anymore. 

Comment: It’s never nice to see a business with a proud tradition of family ownership get kicked around by the big boys, nor nipped at by the little fellers with their artisanal beards and their craft beers.

It’s definitely not time to take out the handbasket and prepare for a short trip to somewhere hot, but geez things could be better vis-à-vis the dear old economy. Bidvest are warning direly that unless the SARB hikes the interest rate and sharpish, the Rand will continue its record freefall against the dollar. The Reserve Bank is expecting inflation – temporarily depressed by the oil price – to exceed its target ceiling and hit 6.7% in the first quarter of 2016. The current account deficit is worryingly high, and the Bank is not sure why. They’ve revised their GDP growth prediction from 2.5% to 2%, which runs counter to the argument for an increase. And with the average wage increase currently outstripping inflation, the public sector wage negotiations later on this year are likely to be torrid. 

Comment: All of this makes a powerful case for a steady hand at the helm. And our next best chance for that, sadly, is 2017.

In an unusual move for a listed entity, Shoprite is suing eleven of its shareholders for illegally trading Shoprite securities on the Lusaka Stock Exchange, shenanigans which you will recall have been recorded, if obliquely, on these pages. Shoprite want the shares back, plus a cash payment of 3 million Zambian Kwacha, and for the LSE to correct its records accordingly.

Continuing the great new tradition of American senators writing open letters to recalcitrant foreign politicians, 13 of them have penned a missive to our own Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, beseeching him to influence the SA Poultry Association (Sapa) to ease their hard-line stance on keeping rather than scrapping the duties on imported US  chicken. At stake is South African’s continued participation in AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, due for renewal in September, if we play nice on the chicken duties.