Pick n Pay seem intent on capturing and holding some of that airy, scenic moral highground even as the poor bloody infantry at Shoprite on the right flank and the dashing cavalry of Woolies on their left chip away at the old market share. Last week, in a powerful statement, CEO Richard Brasher declared a war on waste: the waste of potential among unemployed South Africans, to whom he promised jobs at a rate of 20 a week, organic waste from the stores, which he committed to reducing 20% by 2020; the waste of electricity, which ditto. The campaign – you guessed it! – is being called 20/20 by 2020, and Mr. B, in the spirit of generosity and savvy marketing in which it is being waged, is not claiming it for his own: “We don’t own this war against waste,” he says. “We can all take part and we can all benefit from it.” Your move, Messrs Basson and Moir. 

Comment: Since Chairman Ackerman started the business back in the day, it’s held itself up as a champion for the dear old consumer.

More on those Shoprite results of which we apprised you in our special report last week: turnover up 11.2% to R113.69 billion for the year to June 2015, with trading profit up a solid 10.7% to R6.3 billion. The big news about growth is that the business spent R823 million opening 49 stores in South Africa during FY ’15, but over a billion opening just 23 stores on the continent. And next year, there’ll be more to come, with over R600million apiece earmarked for growth at home and abroad, where the priority markets will be Madagascar, the DRC and Uganda. In Africa last year, sales grew 13.5%, outstripping growth back home by a burly 3%. Whitey Basson was atypically bearish about growth at home, in fact saying that with the ambitions of Spar and the recovery of Pick n Pay, Shoprite’s market share would be tricky to grow past its current level of 32%.

Comment: Commendably straight shooting there, Mr. James W. We’re looking forward to the next ten years in Africa, though.

Earlier this year, you will recall, Wal-Mart did the right thing, under some pressure, and raised their minimum wage to $9 an hour. They also added hours for their staff and brought back positions like greeters and department heads. Much as we’d love to say that the whole shebang was a Utopian success, The Big Feller reports that while sales and customer experience have ticked up, operating income has declined 8.2%. This shortfall, they say, they will be looking to recover in savings in the supply chain and elsewhere in the business. Last Tuesday, Wal-Mart lowered its profit outlook for the year, but by all accounts still intends raiding the minimum for its workers to $10 an hour in 2016.

Comment: Hard decisions, particularly in the light of the increasing automation of retail. But great stuff while it lasts.

The Loeries came to Durban a couple weeks back, and a jolly good time was had by all. So much so, in fact, that Director Nathan Reddy was kind enough to remark that Durban rocks, a fact of which no Durbanite had hitherto been aware. Except maybe Unilever, a corporate Durbanite, which waltzed away with not one or two but eleven out of thirteen available SMARTIES awards, SMARTIES being the Mobile Marketing Association’s contribution to the weeklong ponyfest. Here are some of those awards, which offer an illuminating glimpse into this burgeoning discipline:
Brand Awareness Category: bronze for Connect with Shield
Relationship Building/CRM: gold for OMO Fast Kids Math and silver for Unilever Deals
Cross Media / Cross Mobile Integration: bronze for Shield Missed Call
Messaging: gold for  Whatsfordinner Chef Wend
Mobile Website: gold for OMO Fast Kids Math and silver for Unilever Deals by Thumbtribe
Mobile Social: gold for AXECESS on Mxit and bronze for Shield Missed Call
Innovation: gold for Instant Inspiration and Best in Class for Knorr Instant Inspiration

Comment: Oh, brave new world! Seriously.

Distell’s sales were up just 5.7% for the year thru June, with revenue on that up 10.4% to R19.6 billion. One of the reasons for this apparently disappointing haul is their major investment in skills, infrastructure, new routes to market (including Africa and, interestingly, Taiwan) and various other means to improve competitiveness. This saw operating costs climb 10.9% to R17.5 billion. So in short, long term growth is being prioritised over short term gains. which include positioning Distell as the world’s biggest cider producer and doubling profits by 2020.

Comment: They should have a word with Pick n pay, who for some reason are mustard for the year 2020.

Consider, as Chairman Ackerman the younger would have you do, the dear old South African Consumer. Interest rates are going up, inflation is rising and the rand is making like an eighteen wheeler whose brakes have failed on Town Hill, with the last arrester bed half a kay back. All of this he warns, is taking cash out of the consumer back sky, and they are increasingly resorting to credit to make ends meet. The solution? Worryingly, he suggests that it’s government, which should review its policy to stimulate economic growth as the way things are going are ‘not acceptable for an emerging economy’. Mr. Ackerman was speaking to CNBC Africa in his capacity as co-Chairman of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa.

Comment: An august body, from which we do not hear nearly enough these days.

Another set of results, another set of humdingers from The Man, (quoted admittedly from the interims back in Feb) This time around we see a more muted and reflective Whitey than the one to whom we are accustomed.
On Fiscal Policy: “I’d like to hear (Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene) say that everybody whose surname starts with a ‘B’ pays no tax!”
On Gambling: “Las Vegas is not a bad place to have a superstore.”
On the Way Forward: “Everybody that has a saving should try and pass that saving on in the hope of creating jobs in South Africa because that in the long run is what we need.”

Some time ago we speculated irresponsibly that newly-formed Softbev, a subsidiary of packaging business Bowler Metcalf, might be in line to snaffle up a lucrative Pepsi bottling contract. And yea, it has come to pass. Sometimes we frighten ourselves, that’s how good we are.