We recall being pretty darned excited when the first Freshstop opened at a Caltex in Cape Town back in ’09. Six years on, and they’ve just opened their 200th store: time to take figurative stock. Year on year, they have averaged growth of 12%, against an industry average of 1%, passing the R1billion turnover mark last year. They have a broad and sturdy footprint, spread almost evenly between the Western Cape, KZN and the inland regions, and have precisely 140 more stores than their nearest competitor, Woolies (Engen), with Pick n Pay at BP and Mugg & Bean (Total) there or thereabout. When a store coverts to a Freshstop, turnover grows up by about 40%, with fuel sales up 8-10%, and the size of the average basket is R25.00, R6.00 above the industry norm. 

Comment: The Shoprite of forecourts, if you will. Although owned, of course by swashbuckling new kids Fruit & Veg City.

Those Woolies results then: group sales up 54.9% …wait, what?!!... oh, including the newly acquired David Jones. 12.0% without. Still including, operating profit was up 41.7% to R5.5billion, although margin was down a touch from 9.8% to 9.0%. And food is an interesting story: turnover up 13.5% to R22.3billion, with like-store growth up 6.6% against internal inflation of 7.7%, and operating profit margin up half a percent to 7.1%. Woolies are talking this up as a watershed year, with the Australian acquisition (and the consolidation of the Country Road stake) taking the Dapper One to the next level of geo-commercial scale (we totally made that up). Otherwise, business as usual for a retailer whose core market of better-heeled South African punters shows no sign of holding back on the posh steaks and aloe juice, even in these straitened times. For a slightly more detailed view of those results, have a look at what we said over here.

Comment: But of course if you were one of our loyal subscribers, you’d know all about this already.

A mixed set of results from the Men in Black this half-year: total sales up 9.1% to R38.9billion, to be sure, but operating profit down 1.4% to R685.2million, hit hard by losses at Masscash (Jumbo, Rhino, Shield and Cambridge) where trading profit was down 34.5%. Makro held steady, however, with sales up 11.4% and trading profit up 13.5%, while Massbuild grew sales a whopping 16.3% and trading profit a positively Brobdingnagian 31%, thank you men (and indeed women) in bakkies. According to CEO Guy Hayward, who as a one-time CFO likes these sort of things, they are happy with their “effective margin management and robust expense control”. 

Comment: Massmart’s exposure at the embattled lower end of the market have hurt them this time around, and exposed just how badly chronic unemployment and flat economic growth are for the real people.

Troubled pharma business Adcock Ingram is keen (if that’s the word) to dispose of a loss-making Indian business it acquired just two years ago in an attempt to emulate rival (and South African number one) Aspen by diversifying beyond the continental shelf. The transaction cost Adcock R745million at the time, and has proved itself to be the gift that keeps on taking, losing over R50million in each of the past two years. The move to sell is not conclusive, no buying being in the offing, but comes as part of an ongoing strategy to reorganise, with the SA business already rationalised into four units focused around different market segments and product offerings. 

Comment: Adcock Ingram is based in Johannesburg, while Aspen, which sells product in 47 countries, is based in the vibrant and cosmopolitan international port city of Durban, where even the most visionary executives are able to achieve an enviable work/life balance.

More results, which are flying in thick and fast this week. IMPERIAL Logistics saw turnover rise 7% to R110.5billion for the year which for them ended in June, lifted thither by a spate of acquisitions, notably in the pharmaceutical sector. Pharmed, in which IMPERIAL bought 62.5% for R148million, is a distributor of pharmaceutical supplies to doctors, hospitals and pharmacies, while Imres (70%, R647million) is a wholesaler of similar to NGOs, hospitals and retailers. The acquisitions are in line with IMPERIAL’s strategy under new CEO, the ever bushy-tailed Mark Lamberti, to lessen the Group’s dependence on vehicle sales and into logistics, which are less subject to the vagaries of global currency markets. 

Comment: Under Lamberti, IMPERIAL might be the stock to keep an eye on. Just saying.

South Africa’s major retailers are all sorted out for generators and solar panels and great rooms full of batteries, no problem there. But what about all the smaller ones, which are not similarly equipped? When load shedding hits, they simply shut shop, and this is driving consumers away from the malls, and hurting the big boys too. This according to Massmart’s Guy Hayward, who believes that while the current woes have a cyclical component, the underlying structure of our economy – the “engine room” as he puts it – is also being hurt. The economy, he says, is the worst he’s seen it in 15 years, a period which encompasses the Great Decession of 2008. With growth negative on the second quarter of the year, some economists believe that even 1% GDP growth is off the cards for the year. 

Comment: We’re not much given to quoting Marx in polite company these days. But check out the Weekly Guru. We think he got it back to front this time.

We recall Grant Pattison, as a fresh-faced Massmart CEO, musing publicly at a CGCSA conference that for the sake of the planet, oil should maybe hit $1,000 a barrel – this at a time when the commodity was already pricy and driving inflation all over the show. Now that thoughtful man is putting his considerable talent where his mouth is, as CEO of NRG Energy, the New York Stock Exchange-listed company that provides diverse conventional, distributed and renewable energy solutions in the US, and is now operating on these shores.

Continuing to make a splash as a retailer and property owner in Africa’s Biggest Economy (that, unforgivably, is Nigeria and not us) would be Shoprite, which last week broke ground with Resilient Africa for the Shoprite Shopping Mall in Ibom Tropicana Complex in the state of Uyo. If indeed one breaks ground for, and not in, or indeed of, or at.

Look it’s nice that Koo wins the Overall Favourite Brand Award again for the second time in five years at the annual Sunday Times Top Brand shindig, but honourable mention must surely go to Eskom, which according to the reportage “walked away with the ‘Green’ Grand Prix Award for preserving the environment and harnessing the country’s natural resources.” I’mma let you finish, Koo, but Eskom…