Taking shareholder activism to a whole new level last week were the National Coalition 4 Palestine, #BoycottWoolworths, who bought Woolworths shares in order to secure entrance to the AGM, where they played merry heck with the agenda, tabling such questions as “Why is Woolworths bugging our phones?” and “Is it true that you have threatened media houses with the withdrawal of your advertising rands?” (No and no, according to Mr Moir, but we’ll look into it.) It all made quite a refreshing change from the usual “Where is my dividend?” and “How come the board are all driving new Maseratis?” And the really great thing was, the activist shareholders in question all saw a 30% increase in their investment, which must have pleased them no end.

Comment: Again, it seems to us that Woolworths has been unfairly singled out among retailers, at a time when the line between words and action is precariously fine.

Last year, Food Lovers Holdings turned over R10billion in its 120 stores and 200-plus Fresh Stops, and owners Brian and Mike Coppin are keen for more of the same. But opening stores is an expensive business. Where to get the cash? Enter private equity outfit Actis, who are forking out R760million for a significant minority stake in Food Lovers, part of which capital will go towards store rollouts. Actis, which has $7billion+ under management, has major experience in FMCG, with investments in consumer companies as far afield as China and Latin America. And the fact that they have built 15 malls in seven different countries can’t hurt either.

Comment: Next stop, the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE)?

The Holiday Season, eh. That blessed time of year when we reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves, and make peace with those whom we have wronged. And when, in completely unrelated news, retailers dish out awards to deserving suppliers. For example, Shoprite, whom we have chosen because of their festive red and white livery. Among the fortunate this year was Upcoming Supplier of the Year Connie Ferguson, whose business Koni Multinational Brands sells a range of body lotions to The Big Red One, and which saw growth of 460% this year in Checkers alone. Also on the Nice List were Unilever, which received awards in both the perishables and ambient categories, and Kimberly Clark under toiletries.

Comment: Shoprite now does business with over 50 women-owned service providers and suppliers, a small but important and growing constituency.

Over in the UK, British American Tobacco are in a spot of bother above and beyond the usual, which comes from bringing to market a product which is fast becoming illegal. Turns out they have a whistle-blower on their hands, one Paul “The Fixer” Hopkins, who ran security in Africa, and who is brandishing a sheaf of documents which, he claims, conclusively prove corruption at the tobacco giant. BAT, he says, paid monies to employees at rival Mastermind in order to get a look at the minutes of the marketing meetings just “12 or 14 hours” after they had happened, or before the marketing team had even got back from lunch. “My job,” says The Fixer, “was to ensure that the competition never got any breathing space.”

Comment: We are shocked – shocked! – at this evidence of dodgy dealings in the tobacco industry.

Under CEO Paul Polman, who is often mentioned in the business press in the same paragraph as household names like “Jesus” and “Ghandi”, Unilever is taking its green energy crusade to the next level, with a promise to cut coal from its energy mix by 2020 and to use only renewables by 2030. Polman is noted for his no longer eccentric belief that climate change is a threat to economic growth, and that a growing economy is good for business. Unilever have joined a coalition of 81 businesses, including rivals Nestlé and P&G, which have signed up to set emissions targets for their businesses. Polman himself has joined a smaller group of business leaders calling on government to commit to zero net emissions by 2050.

Comment: After decades of childishly unbridled greed, mom and dad are home, order is slowly being restored, and a new world of business is just around the corner.

So Fitch have gone and done it: dropped our credit rating to BBB-, the lowest investment grade, and bang goes the rand, which dropped to R14.47 to the dollar, which is almost as low as it’s ever gone. And to add insult to injury, Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on our debt from stable to negative. All of this, says Fitch, is because our growth potential has weakened further apparently, and a power shortage over the next two years is not going to help things. They’re also not happy with our government’s failure to tighten fiscal policy in the face of declining revenue and increasing debt. Somewhat dispiritingly, local pundits are not surprised by the rating agencies moves, citing the government’s unwillingness to take bold action in the face of slow-motion economic disaster.

Comment: Time for new leadership, the sooner the better.

Did you know about Imperial Retail Solutions? We can’t say we did, until GlaxoSmithKline, a business which likes understandably to hide its lack of punctuation behind the acronym GSK, upped and awarded them a three-year contract for sales, merchandising and brand consulting services.

So SPAR, as we might have mentioned on the Twitter just the other day, have opened their first Good Living Home Store, in the pleasantly bucolic Village Mall in Kloof, KZN. The jolly green one is apparently testing the waters there with this new format, which by all accounts is well worth a look.