Some quarterlies from SPAR, who report a handsome increase in sales of 16.9% to R25.6bn for the 13-week period through 31 December. So far so promising, but digging into the numbers, sales at home were up just 5.8%, held back by a slowdown in the Build it division. The South African grocery retail business grew 6.1% with like-store sales up 5.2%, while Tops came through as the star performer for the season with growth over 11.3%. Surprisingly, the numbers were down for Ireland, which recorded -2.6% sales growth in the face of (are you sitting down for this?) sterling weakness and the strengthening rand. Reading between the lines, then, we’d hazard a guess that the more robust number in the first line of this story reflects sales ex-DC, which is after all the cornerstone of the SPAR business model.

Comment: A solid business which like its peers is adjusting to a challenging new economic reality.

So, Dis-Chem’s first trading update since listing (sort of) on the JSE last year: how’d that go? Not too shabby: Turnover was up 13% to R7.3billion in the 22 weeks through January, with store sales up 9.1% against internal inflation of 6.5%. CJ Distribution, the wholesale wing, recorded sales growth of 15.2%. The business plans to add 21 new stores in the 2018FY as it advances towards its five-to-eight-year plan of doubling numbers to 200.

Comment: Nice one.

Pick n Pay’s Smart Shopper programme has been something of a textbook case: big, fast, and popular, driven by meaningful benefits to customers and providing Pick n Pay itself with loyal shoppers and valuable data in heaping measure. Smart Shopper, you will recall, provides punters with points to the value of a cent on every rand spent instore, which may be redeemed on any purchase at the register. Now Pick n Pay are adding a credit facility to the card, which offers shoppers 55 days to pay before the whopping interest rate of 21% kicks in. The rate will also apply on bigger purchases, like fridges or cellphones. The facility, currently being piloted, can be used at Pick n Pay stores, including clothing stores nationally, but you cannot use the associated card at ATMs. The move appears targeted at shoppers who might face a cash flow crunch towards the end of the month. “So, we are developing a new Pick n Pay store account to help customers manage their grocery spend in an environment where the cost of credit can be extremely high,” says Richard van Rensburg, Pick n Pay’s deputy CEO.

Comment: An interesting strategic move that comes with a cautionary to shoppers who are unable to clear their debt before the 55 day grace period expires.

“If being sort of Steady Eddie is described as a criticism, I’m happy to be criticised,” says Massmart CEO Guy “Steady Eddie” Hayward. This in a Wall Street Journal story on the question of whether Walmart has lost its appetite for expansion on this great continent we call home. When Walmart acquired a majority stake in Massmart for $2.4billion in 2011, Massmart had 26 stores beyond South Africa’s borders, and was viewed as a springboard for Walmart’s launch into the World’s Biggest Untapped Consumer Market. Since then, Massmart has added just 13 stores to the haul, as commodity prices tanked and the challenges of doing business on the continent – red tape, tricky supply chains, corruption – continued to manifest themselves. Indeed, it’s been two years since Massmart has received a mention in the Walmart quarterlies. Walmart has also hit major headwinds in other developing markets, closing 115 stores in Latin America and slowing is expansion in China. Massmart, however,  are selling the slowdown in Africa as a feature, not a bug.

Comment: And who are we to doubt them.

It being that time of year, Pioneer Foods has also issued a trading update, revealing that turnover grew 5.1% in the four months to January, mainly as a result of inflation. Here at home turnover grew 7.6%; elsewhere it fell 10.3%, due to weaker demand in other African markets, higher input costs for juice, currency fluctuation and – but you knew this already – a disastrous raisin crop. Tough times, but an undeterred Pioneer has let it be known that it intends to stick to its guns, namely: a programme of robust fixed capital investment, acquisitive growth and a sustained focus on cost and efficiency in line with its generous 2020 growth target. And very commendably, it intends to do this while sourcing its produce sustainably, even in the face of persistent drought.

Comment: You’ll be happy to learn that the raisin crop is predicted to bounce back nicely in the ’18.

Hake-producer Sea Harvest is turning a sprightly 53 this year, pipping us ever so slightly to the post, and is planning to celebrate by listing on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) in March. Or rather, by being listed: Sea Harvest, you will recall, is owned by investment holding company Brimstone, who will attempt also to secure some pre-listing fundage in a private placing aimed at bringing in R1.5billion. The JSE is rapidly becoming an appealing place for those with an appetite for the ocean’s bounty: Premier Food and Fishing, owned by African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI) is also planning on a March listing. And Oceana – also owned in part by Brimstone – has already dipped its toe in the water, with a market cap of R16billion.

Comment: As our oceans become less populous and our cities more so, the exploitation of the seas becomes an ever-cannier investment.

In the grim light of the impending Sassa crisis, there is one group of beneficiaries of social grants we have overlooked: the multibillion rand businesses where most of the grant money ends up. Take Shoprite, for example, which pocketed R2.1billion in October, November and December from South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) card purchases. PnP made R1billion over the same period, with Boxer following at R553million and SPAR at R197million. Even Woolworths and KFC took home their share, at R5.9million and R2.7million respectively. (The figures are taken from card swipes only and do not take into account Sassa money withdrawn from ATMs or from the retailers and spent). What is to become of these businesses should the payments promised on April 1 not materialise? Perhaps understandably, this is not a question that exercises the Social Development Department much. Rather, they are focusing their efforts on the little guy, launching a drive to ensure that "money is left in the communities" with SMMEs instead of going to big businesses, and, their words, looking for "a beneficiary-centred system that will improve economic activity where beneficiaries live and receive their social grants".

Comment: Don’t get us wrong, but there is something in that…

Not the sparkling news some punter would have been hoping for (that’s enough – Ed.) Coca-Cola has said in a trading update that earnings would likely decline by up to 4% in the next year as it faces sluggish demand in emerging regions like Latin America, with sales of its sparkling beverages declined 2% in the fourth quarter. The healthier, still-beverages division grew 2% in the same period, but that’s a much smaller bit of the business. Smaller containers in the US and Europe have helped stanch some of the outflow.