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More on that rather sensational bit of non-news upon which we reported last week, that a certain analyst saw the signs of an early withdrawal from South Africa by Walmart. This week, the other analysts piled on, with all the social cohesion of a pack of hyenas at the last baby wildebeest carcass this side of the Serengeti River. Never happen, they said. While certainly, Massmart’s performances has not been all that, it has been affected by a range of external factors – the commodity fall-off, the Rand, the shift in wholesale cash & carry trading models – and now would be exactly the time to hold rather than fold. And Africa is a long game for Walmart, one in its early stages. Finally, there’s the level of investment: Walmart has put both blood and treasure into “Walmartising” Massmart, into driving the principles of joint business planning, focusing on back-office and operational efficiencies, ensuring Group-wide consistent compliance, and driving its “Save Money. Live Better.” promise to its shoppers.  They’ll stick around to see a return on this investment.

Comment: But hey, that’s not us, that’s the analysts, who like sports journalists are mysteriously never called to account for the accuracy of their predictions whether dire or soothing.

You know us. Salt of the earth, meat and potatoes sorts. Not given to irresponsible speculation about who’s buying what shares and on behalf of whom. We leave that sort of thing to the clever chaps, and indeed chapette’s, over at erudite rags like the Financial Mail. And this week, they’re wondering idly about why Shoprite Directors Carel De Wet Burger, through the Callie Burger Trust, and Brian Weyers each loaned out R20.1m worth of Shoprite Shares to Investec Bank in a scrip lending transaction, for fees of an undisclosed sum. Reading between the lines, the FM seems to think that this has something to do with the fact that while retailers have profited fairly handsomely from the rise in food prices, generous rains this year could bring inflation to a crashing halt. According to the invaluable Investopedia, scrip lending “is important to short selling, in which an investor borrows securities in order to immediately sell them. The borrower hopes to profit by selling the security and buying it back at a lower price.”

Comment: Which would tend to support the view that things might be expected to cool down for Shoprite and the other retailers later this year.

Good news from the Competition Commission this week, if you happen to be a global beverage giant: the Commish (as we in the newsroom affectionately call it) has given the nod to a merger between divisions of SABMiller and Coca-Cola, with the involvement of the Gutsche Family Investments (GFI), to create Africa’s biggest Coke bottler. GFI owns 80% of Coca-Cola Sabco, the second largest Coca-Cola bottler in Africa (after SABMiller) and will contribute this holding to the new venture. SABMiller and Coke will do the same in a phased deal. The new business will be known as Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), serving 12 countries, employing 12,000 people and accounting for 40% of Coke’s African volume. In a side deal, Coke has agreed to buy all of Appletiser’s brands globally, and buy or be licensed for a further 19 non-alcoholic brands in Africa and Latin America from SABMiller for about $260million.

Comment: A massive consolidation of resources on the thirsty continent, from businesses which have never shied away from consolidation.

If you aren’t doing anything on the 15th, 16th and 17th of June, and come to think of it, even if you are, you really need to get yourself down to Cape Town for the 60th Global Summit of the Consumer Goods Forum. The Summit is like the “Big Massive Rolling Stones Stadium Tour” of the industry, and this year will seek to bridge the industry’s generation gap, featuring such icons as Coca-Cola’s Muhtar Kent and Tesco CEO Dave Lewis, head to head with a new generation of entrepreneurs Facebook Africa CEO Nunu Ntshingila and Affiong Williams of ReelFruit. Other luminaries due to contribute their wisdom include WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, and former captain of the SA Rugby Team François Pienaar. These being a conference, expect lots of “Disruption”, but in the good, industry-changing way, not the bad, traffic-clogging way. To register, head right over here.

Comment: Although this being Cape Town, maybe some of that, too.

This week, economists reeled (and not in the jolly, Scottish dance sense of the word) that SA’s joblessness rate had risen to an eight year high as the economy shed 355,000 jobs, bringing the number of unemployed up to 5.7million people, or 26.7%, of the available workforce. While the drought and the commodities slump do bear some responsibility for this, head wizard over at StatsSA’s School of Obfuscation and Trickery Pali Lehohla laid the blame at the Government’s door. "When the results are like this, it shows that you need to adjust your employment policies,” he argued. “Programmes like the expanded public works programme have not really disturbed the steady unemployment rate." The consensus, which he shares, is that without skills and education, SA’s unemployed are unlikely to find meaningful work. The jittery rand tanked on the news, demonstrating needlessly once again the interconnectedness of all things.

Comment: Thanks, we think we get the picture.

Excellent work there from Woolies’s own Reeza Isaacs, voted CFO of the Year in the eponymously-named awards. Well no, obviously the awards are not named “The Reeza Isaacs Awards”; They’re named “The CFO Awards”, the eponymity referring to the position rather than the identity of the winner. You’d think we wouldn’t have to explain that, but there you go. We have it on good authority that the award itself was presented at a suitably restrained dinner, after which the bill was split equably and efficiently, without the rising panic and snappish irritation that generally attends these things when there isn’t an accountant at the table.

“Who?” you ask, puzzled, and we’re here to tell you. OBC Chicken and Meat, which has just won the Franchisor of the Year Award has around 60 stores nationwide, selling fresh and frozen chicken, meats, fish, eggs and dry goods, including an expanding range of house-branded items to main-market shoppers. The business opened as a single store in 1987 and has grown solidly ever since, offering putters a combination of low prices and respect they find difficult to resist.