That’s quite the war chest the Jolly Green One is packing these days. SPAR has just raised R2.2billion through the placing of 11.9million new shares, and this will be used to fund the purchase of 60% of SPAR Switzerland and knock off some of the debt incurred in the purchase of 80% of SPAR Ireland (and presumably the BMG Group) in 2014. The punters are apparently just eating these shares up, and why wouldn’t they? They were going for R185 apiece, or 0.18% off last Tuesday’s closing price. The move is a shrewd one, leaving SPAR unencumbered by what we financial boffs call “gearing”, and in a position to invest in ongoing operations and to cast about for further value-enhancing opportunities.

Comment: The acquisitive expansion of SPAR South Africa is turning into one of the most exciting stories in retail right now. Where to next? Go on, give us a clue…

For a fascinating dive into store design as a pillar of retail innovation and success, we’d heartily recommend that you have a look at this excellent interview with our good friend Nic Criticos, head of store design at Woolworths. A good store, he says, is two things – “a machine designed for selling… and a brand building tool”. Woolies, as well you know, have long been at the leading edge of retail innovation, both here in the Beloved Country and beyond, a fact that Criticos attributes in part to the trying conditions here – the relatively low production capacity and skill levels, and the slow economic growth. He’s characteristically amped at the way store design is going now, with online and physical environments becoming integrated into a 360 degree shopper experience (our words, not his) and the store repurposed as a social hub, where people come to meet, not merely to shop.

Comment: At the heart of Woolworths’ success has always been an investment in exceptional people. Nice one.

On the well-worn carpet in front of the Competition Commission, where all retailers eventually end up is Clicks, dragged thither by the Independent Community Pharmacy Association of SA, which represents around 1,100 of the smaller outfits and alleges that Clicks is engaged in bullying tactics. For example, says the Association, Clicks has a deal with malls whereby if a Clicks decides to open a pharmacy in one, any small pharmacies in the same mall have 60 days to pack up their impahla and go. Also (and this is where it gets murky) Clicks makes money on the manufacture and promotion of its own branded medications, thus lowering its dispensing fees and undercutting the competition. Clicks points out that it does not manufacture its own pharmaceuticals, although it does sell them under the Clicks name. Some of the drugs in question, though, are made by Unicorn Pharmaceuticals, a business owned by Clicks, with the same board of directors.

Comment: One of these days, someone is going to have to do something definitive with the muddy legislation around anchor tenants and what constitutes fair competition in the burnished corridors of our malls.

Distell, who bring you an assortment of fine ciders and brandies, and has amazed and delighted your overseas visitors with their Amarula Cream (“It’s made from elephants, you know”), has big plans. It’s their ambition to double sales to R24billion-ish by the relatively symmetrical but otherwise undistinguished year of 2020, and they will be looking elsewhere to do so as growth slows back home. This means “inorganic activity”, as they call it, i.e. mergers and acquisitions, both on the African continent, where it has set up a factory in Ghana and will shortly be doing so in Angola, and further afield. In this regard, they are confident, the acquisition of SABMiller by AB InBev should free up some assets for purchase, particularly in the cider market. Distell are particularly interested in cider, which they regard as an undeveloped category, seeking markets where there is a relaxed attitude towards drinking and where the sexes may socialise freely together.

Comment: An interesting business, with interesting times ahead.

The most important meal of the day is in trouble, and only the millennials can save it. This according to Kellogg, which has seen the sale of breakfast cereals fall in the US by 8.8% since 2012. However, the share of cereal eaten in the afternoon and at night by millennials with their tiny houses and their beards and Hello Kitty onesies has risen, to about 35%, and this Kellogg see as a sign of hope: cereal as all day snack. Some analysts are sceptical that this is going to work – the bump Kellogg might receive by repackaging cereals in grab and go containers will be relatively insignificant they say, and snacking’s an already cutthroat and crowded category. But why has it come to this for cereal in the first place? People are looking for fresher, healthier options – witness the inexorable rise of boutique blenders like the NutriBullet. In response, Kellogg and its competitors are removing artificial flavouring and colouring from their products, and adding more natural ingredients where possible.

Comment: Look, cereal will always be part of a healthy breakfast, as the ads say. But its glory days may well be over.

Remember the law passed three years ago under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act for the reduction of salt in almost everything, but specifically including bread, butter, margarine, snacks, breakfast cereals, processed meats such as sausages, stock cubes, savoury powders and soups? Time’s up, people! Well, almost. The deadline for the regulations to come into effect is in June, and failure to comply could result in punishment for erring manufacturers. However, says the government, because the introduction of the resolution was so amicable, this should not be an issue. The World Health Organization recommends a daily salt intake of no more that 5g; it is estimated the some South Africans consume as much as 40g, with conditions like hypertension and strokes prevalent in our population.

Comment: A schlep, no doubt, but an excellent cause, one of those legislative beacons we raise as a nation every now and then.

Tiger Brands could lose its immunity in the long-running Competition Commission probe into price fixing in the milling industry. According to rival and co-defendant Blinkwater, only one company under investigation is eligible for immunity – and the get out of jail card had already gone to Premier. This by way of Blinkwater edging out of the enquiry themselves. The Commission avers that its policy in this regard is not rigid.