Plucky upstart in the supermarket food arena Massmart (that’s laying it on a bit thick – Ed.) has stuck it to the man if you will in either a Cinderella story or a David and Goliath epic, take your pick (enough. Ed.) in resisting Pick n Pay’s attempt to make Game stop trading as a supermarket at the Cape Gate shopping centre in Brackenfell. Pick n Pay had an exclusivity deal, you will recall with mall owners Hyprop, then Game cheekily started operating its Foodco offering under everyone’s noses, and all sorts of legal nastiness ensued, upon which we have reported extensively in these pages. It went all the way up to the Constitutional Court, and they delivered judgement on Friday. “As a general proposition… there is no legal duty on third parties not to infringe contractually derived exclusive rights to trade because exclusive trading rights make the competitive field uneven,” they intoned, gravely we imagine.

Comment: A victory for the forces of the free market, of which, occasionally, we thoroughly approve.

Shoprite’s expansion beyond the borders of The Beloved Country have brought great opportunities for suppliers, and not just those at home. Case in point: Zambeef, which as you may have discerned is a beef supplier from Zambia. And they are kicking their heels up with joy at Shoprite’s drive into West Africa, which likes a slice of beef as much as the next sub-Saharan region. Zambeef, you see, are contracted to run Shoprite’s in-store butcheries there, and Zambeef is gearing up for expansion: they recently raised $65milion from the disposal of shares to UK outfit the CDC Group. Shoprite opened six new stores in Nigeria and one in Ghana in the last FY, for a regional total of 25 Shoprites and six Master Meats outlets. Another four Shoprites are on the way in Nigeria in 2017, and one in Ghana, so happy days.

Comment: A win-win for everyone: Shoprite has a totally hands-off approach to the Zambeef-run departments; Zambeef gets to expand beyond its wildest dreams. An interesting continental model for other businesses.

After some derisive reporting (including from ourselves) on Pick n Pay’s low-key and small-scale experiment with self-checkout, the Big Blue has quietly launched something much better: contactless card payments. Tap and go, as the technology is endearingly known, enable shoppers to merely tap their cards against card readers rather than going through the laborious combination of swiping, chipping, signing and PINning that shopping entails in these dark and backward times. Tap and go offers the best of all possible worlds: continued employment for Pick n Pay’s cheerful cashiers, and quicker lines for Mr and Mrs Punter. The service is now live in all stores and at all visa-and-mastercard accepting tillpoints, on transactions up to 200 ront.

And speaking of comebacks, which we were just now, Tiger’s having a decent year despite tricky trading conditions. Having disposed of the millstone that was Nigeria, and got some new blood in the form of CEO Lawrence MacDougall, turnover from continuing operations for the year through September grew 11% to R31.7billion, with operating income before accounting charges up 5% to R4.2billion. High input inflation, driven by the travails of the rand and the ongoing drought did impact on the bottom line, but still, a healthy outcome. In other Tiger news, chairman Andre Parker is handing over to Khotso Mokhele, who has been on the board since 2007. And in yet other Tiger Brands news, they have no intention right now to bring Doom to the healthcare section.

Comment: When life gives you Nigerian flour mills, make lemonade, as the saying goes. Nice one.

Despite a R681million foreign exchange loss in Nigeria and Angola, Nampak managed to extract a fair bit of growth elsewhere on the continent in the 12 months through September. Revenue grew 11%, while operating profit soared 29% to R2.2billion, boosted to the tune of R1.3billion by recent property sales. Trading profit was up 4% to R1.9billion, with trading profit from the rest of Africa up 12% to an impressive R990million. Packaging did well, with paper, plastics, metals and glass all up, and glass turning a handsome little profit of R105million after 2015’s R81million loss. The forex losses came as a result of foreign exchange shortages and large currency devaluations in both countries, circumstances which according to Nampak cannot be ruled out as a recurring problem.

Comment: An occupational hazard for businesses doing their thing in inconsistently promising oil economies.

So Moody’s and Fitch have judiciously held back on any downgrade action, with the former keeping our sovereign rating at Baa2, two levels above subinvestment grade, and the latter holding our investment-grade credit rating at one notch above “junk”. In the case of Fitch, though, it has changed its outlook and believes that despite depressed business confidence and contracting investment, our economy might have started to grow again. And Moody’s were well impressed with the strength of our institutions, citing Pravin’s fightback against the NPA, and the State Capture report as promising signs. But what of Standard and Poor’s? Their jury is still out, and will have an answer for us by Friday. All of this matters because the treasury needs to borrow R165billion this fiscal year to help meet the budget shortfall, and depending on S&P’s decision this debt could cost us as much as three times as much to service. Comment: Interesting times, of the Confucian variety.

A set of absolute corkers from Oceana Brands with revenue up 34% to R8.2billion for the year through September, and operating profit up 69%. This after the acquisition for R4.6billion of Daybrook Fisheries in the US, although operating profit from the South African fishing operations was up a not inconsiderable 24%.

A bold time to list, then, for scrappy little Premier Fishing (Premfish), which is being spun out of African Empowerment Equity Investments (AEEI) and which is just one tenth the size of Oceana, and at the time of writing did not own a single iconic food brand. It supplies South Coast and West Coast lobster, farms abalone, and owns a children’s portions of the hake, pelagic fish and squid sectors.