Tiger Brands In the forests of the night
“The company is moving into difficult times”, rumbled Mr. MacDougall ominously, “and there is now a shift in Tiger’s product categories and shopping patterns of consumers”. This as the new CEO announced that his first order of business would be a full strategic review of the company (shouldn’t there be a “360” in there somewhere? Ed). The review notwithstanding, plans are already in place for a turnaround, including Capex of R1.7bn earmarked for expansion and capacity building in the business’s facilities, brands, and marketing. The programme is already underway, with 50% of it already spent, and a separate investment of R502m made in brands and marketing through March this year. All of this, you will recall, saw turnover grow 9% to R15.9bn for the interim period recently passed.
Comment: The recovery of Tiger’s market share will not happen overnight, in a competitive and constrained market, but steps have been taken in the right direction.