Pick n Pay has consistently come out cheapest in a basket of 24 identical items measured over seven weeks by www.myshoppingdeals.co.za, a site that offers punters access to a vast range of coupons and specials, and also measures the performance across this basket of Checkers, Woolies and PnP. Some weeks, PnP is up by as much as R33.00, others, like this week, by only R5.00. It’s a pretty fair basket, all things considered, spread across most categories, though lacking in animal protein. In completely unrelated news, The Big Blue is increasing its stake in Zim’s TM Supermarkets, buying another 26% of the business for a total of 49%, and doing a sort of stocks for stock deal, the latter being the stock PnP has lent TM to keep its shelves full while the farms were being ransacked.

Comment: It would appear that you can continue to live the Pick n Pay “lifestyle” then, even when times are tough.

The Verdant One’s turnover was up a pleasing 8.8% to R17.5billion for the six months to Feb, with operating profit up 13.2% to R685.1large. While low inflation has hit home, and while Captain Hook anticipates slightly slower growth for the second half, a generally pleasing set of numbers, with some exciting news in the pipeline, viz. that SPAR is succumbing to peer pressure and getting into drugs at last, with a stand-alone SPAR pharmacy opening at Shelley Beach next month, where it will do a roaring trade in sunblock and implements for the removal of fish hooks from the fleshy part of the hand. More exciting news is the opening of a store in Mozambique, where any rollout will be served by the Lowveld DC in Nelspruit, just 200km from die grens.

Comment: Great stuff, that jolly green feller. While the DC/wholesaler model does have its drawbacks for a rollout all over the continent, it’s dashed handy for opening stores in neighbouring states.

Clicks has given its carbon footprint the old once over, and found it wanting. Or excessive, rather and thus ripe for a trim. Two years ago, they appointed Carbon and Energy Management specialists GCX to run an audit on Head Office and one of the DCs, and found that Head Office could save 30% of its total energy consumption by putting in motion-sensitive lighting systems, and that 24.1% could be saved at the DC through various lighting retrofits, which together with various IT, aircon and water-heating improvements would contribute to a total saving of 27.6% – which could definitely make a dent in the effect of the Eskom tariff increase. In other Clicks news, they’re offering free HIV counselling and testing in each one of its 245 stores with a dispensary, and at 130 selected Link pharmacies nationwide.

Comment: When it comes to planet-friendly technologies, a commercial tipping point seems to have been reached.

Rukanani Distributors, a wholesaler specialising in liquor, soft drinks and, um, block bricks in Bela-Bela, Limpopo, has hauled Coca Cola, a manufacturer specialising in ... oh shut up. They’ve taken Coca Cola Fortune (hereinafter referred to as “CCF”) to the Competition Tribunal over actions amounting to a “restrictive vertical practice”. Rukanani (“R”) applied in December ’07 to be a distributor of Coke products, but was turned down on the grounds that another distributor, Iqbal Taladia (IT), had offered to supply Coke products to R. R kicked up a fuss about this, and was granted distributorship, although after a couple of deliveries the supply dried up, then CCF upped the price to the same as that offered by IT, and would only resume delivery on payment of same. Enter the Tribunal.

Comment: If Coke wants to engage in restrictive vertical practices, there are special clubs for that sort of thing. Or so we’ve heard.

Plastic packaging chaps Astrapak increased profit for the year ending February by a robust and transparent 13%, and declared a dividend to the tune of 26.4c for grateful punters, who don’t have a clue where the next Romeo y Julieta is coming from in these testing times. Revenue, however, was down 5% to R2.6billion, a reflection on the vagaries of a difficult market in which Astrapak focused on its core competencies – by selling certain of its flexible businesses to Afripack, for example, for the princely sum of R153.7million, and positioning itself well for the recovery.

Comment: Which, certain lantern-jawed analysts assure us, is coming as the sunshine after a shower of rain.

Food prices, according to the National Agricultural Marketing Council in their two-tone Senqu shirts, are set to rise in the seven months to December as logistics and input costs increase. Diesel, for example, has gone up by 8.9% since the beginning of the year, and we aren’t talking sunglasses and jeans here. Vehicle and equipment prices have gone up 2-3% and driver’s wages 9%, and the prices of commodities such as steel, rubber, aluminium, resins and timber have also been thrown into the mix as being of some relevance. However: the rand remains relatively strong against international currencies, some economists point out, tugging at the fraying sleeves of their corduroy jackets, and the low maize price and an expected bumper crop should also have a depressing effect upon prices, so any increase that may come is expected to be on the moderate side.

Comment: What are we to make of it? That farmers will put up prices, come what may, and inconvenient economic realities be damned?

Trade Intelligence extends its condolences to the Susman family, who lost patriarch David last week at the age of 84. David Susman was a former MD and Chairman of Woolworths, and was instrumental in the 1981 merger which saw the establishment of Wooltru and placed Woolies on the growth trajectory which has seen it dominate the upper end of South African retail pretty much ever since. “He had this vision of a business where quality was paramount,” says former Wooltru MD and nephew John Rabb.

Aubrey Zelinsky, head of Pick n Pay’s Antipodean expedition, is retiring at the end of June. While the division – consisting entirely of retailer Franklin’s – turned a small profit in ’09, 2010 was not all that, with turnover growing only 1.4%. Franklin’s is currently valued at $350million Oz; Pick n Pay bought it for $139million in ’01, and has invested a total of R1.3billion in the business. Which is not, Bruce, what one would call a result.

Those devilishly clever chaps over at SAB have come up with an epoch-defining invention: the beer can/cup. This splendid device, which is to be launched at the 2010 Trade Tatler Football World Cup, although not literally as you will see, not only reduces packaging, waste and environmental depredation, but may also – and here’s the cunning part – not be used as a missile to hurl at fans of rival teams, on account of being too light, although we wouldn’t put anything past the English.

Unilever’s Kenyan unit is set to invest 3billion shillings in expanding production capacity over the next five years, having already spent 2.2billion of the shiny little chaps since 2002 in order to grow its factories’ output of detergents, soap bars and food products. A shilling, you will be interested to know, is worth about 1c US, and has never previously appeared in this august periodical.