Bam! A Woolies trading update. Group sales up 16.4% for the 52 weeks through June, with clothing and GM up 8.2% and food up a handsome 11.9%, including food service concessions, with like-store sales up 5.7% and net retail space a whopping although still sophisticated 9.3%. Apparel was a bit of a bust, sadly, what with winter starting late and continuing warm, as it is wont to do these days, can’t think why. And the debtors are up a tad, with the book showing an increase of 2.5% and impairment up a natz from last year’s 5.4% to 5.7%. Otherwise all good, even in the blasted Antipodes, where the ineptly-named David Jones (couldn’t they at least rename it something classy like Chez Dave or House of Jones?) grew sales 8.4%, with like-store sales up 7% and retail space up 3.5%. And if you prefer a little more meat on your update, read our synopsis of the results here.

Comment: So there you have it. A retailer which knows what it’s doing, keeping on doing it.

Perish the thought that Checkers would let a marketing opportunity go to waste, even if it does come on the back of an abject apology by the Sunday Times for misrepresenting the relative cheapness of a basket of goods at Checkers, compared with that of a competitor whom out of consideration for the delicate sensibilities of our readers we decline to name. The Sunday Times survey and the subsequent campaign by the competitor were found to be false, a fact trumpeted by Checkers in an ad campaign of their own. Says Shoprite Checkers marketing director Neil Schreuder, “We work extremely hard to defend our price leadership position in the country and we appreciate that the Sunday Times admitted that Checkers has the cheapest food basket.” Words reflected in the Shoprite Group trading update, a neat little summary of which you can read right here.

Comment: In these times of shrinking household budgets and rising food inflation, retailers are apt to become sensitive over issues of price.

Yet another set of results has been slapped onto our desks, which we have conveniently packaged for you right here. But we digress... Don’t speak to the Magaliessig Action Forum about Makro – or rather, do if you’re Massmart and you wish to keep the doors of dialogue open. The Forum, you see, wishes that Massmart would build their new Makro in Diepsloot rather than in the more bucolic environs of their own Fourways suburb, and hold that Massmart have not consulted with them sufficiently on the subject. Heading up the forum is one Mary Hanna, and she sounds like a firecracker. Here she is on the subject of delivery routes, one of the Forum’s concerns: “How do delivery vehicles get to the proposed site? Fly?” You get the picture. The Forum believe that Diepsloot is a more appropriate site for the store as Massmart has announced its intention to employ residents of the township.

Comment: Tricky terrain, as suitable retail property grows ever more precious in the Beloved Country.

This is news the hugeness of which it would be difficult to overestimate. Unilever has bought, for the sum of a billion dollars, the Dollar Shave Club. In the Star Wars Universe, this would be like Unilever buying up the Rebel Alliance, lock stock and lightsaber, where Proctor & Gamble’s Gillette Brand is the Empire and all three of its Death Stars. Hey, it’s just an analogy, no slur intended upon a respected razor brand which millions of men (and of course women) spend hundreds of millions of dollars on every month, not all of them begrudgingly. The Dollar Shave Club, on the other hand, started just four years ago, enabling customers to order online and have razors delivered to their door for as little as a dollar a month. According to Unilever North America president Kees Kruythoff, “We plan to leverage the global strength of Unilever to support Dollar Shave Club in achieving its full potential in terms of offering and reach.”

Comment: While shaving, if you will, a whisker off of the competition’s market share…

Shout out to IMPERIAL Logistics this week for their canny acquisition of 70% of Sasfin Premier Logistics. Big up there, geezers. SPL (not their real name), you see, is an import-export specialist with expertise in complementary lending and trade solutions. This combined with IMPERIAL’s own capability in warehousing, distribution and transport makes the combo, to be known as IMPERIAL Sasfin Logistics, an irresistible one to punters wishing to simplify their dealings in the supply chain and put it all under one roof. It’s also a lot of clout in one place, and should shake up the industry somewhat.

Comment: Our favourite kind of merger: one where skills and expertise complement each other to offer value to customers, rather than two giants getting together to crush the market between massive boulders.

Food prices – and here we quote freely from the article which caused all the trouble with Checkers, but which is otherwise pretty good – are on the up and it’s hurting consumers. Food prices increased 12.5% over the past year, or almost double the CPI at 6.3%. Inevitably, it was the cost of the basics which increased the most, with vegetables up 22.8%, oils and fats 21.5%, breads and cereals 21.5%, fruits 13%, dairy 6.5% and meat 6.3%. While Standard Bank expects food inflation to peak at 12% this year, averaging 10.2%, the gloomier economists are saying it will be closer to 16%, driven thither by the drought, the weak rand, and a declining economy. The good news, if such there is, is that the Reserve Bank is unlikely to add to the woes of SA’s most vulnerable by upping the repo rate.

Comment: In this climate, accusations of scalping by the major retailers are particularly worrying.

And in an anxiously awaited update on that Sovereign Foods acquisition by Country Bird: something is happening later this month to do with BEE shareholders and cut-off dates, institutional support, special resolutions and wat ook al. Let us know if you hear anything, and indeed if you have a clue what might be going on.

And we’re also stumped, frankly, by the goings-on over at KWV, where, should “a large number of minority shareholders attempt to exit KWV at a fair value price through an appraisal rights option”, the R1.15billion acquisition of the Group’s operating assets by international outfit Vasari Global could be scuppered. We hope not. Unless that’s a bad thing. In which case, we hope so.