Pick n Pay has exited Australia with more style, grace and flair than Mel Gibson, oh wait, than Captain Bligh, um, hang on a minute... Nicole Kidman? Anyway, they’ve sold their 77-store Franklins business to Metcash Aus for a more than handsome R1.4billion, to universal acclaim from the steely-eyed subalterns of the Analysts Brigade. In total, the entire venture had cost PnP an only marginally less handsome R1.3billion over the years, including a higher than expected R650million price tag on acquisition and a R275million fee for a refurb in 2007. Metcash, you may recall, was canned by Franklin’s champion and ex Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers as Franklin’s wholesale distributor back in ’04, in an attempt to cut costs. The deal has freed Pick n Pay from the albatross it has been wearing around its neck for the better part of a decade, and at a very nice price too.

Comment: To quote Monty Python, it’s bloody seabird bloody, bleeding flavour!

Formerly troubled wholesale/retail group Metcash has announced a bold repositioning which will see it enter the lucrative new area of hybrid retail/cash ‘n carry, and bring all of its existing retail brands and formats under the Metro banner, and in its approachable orange livery – for example, Friendly’s will become Metro Supermarkets etc. The repositioning is the outward expression of the bold strategic objectives which have been put in place since Peter Dodson took the helm in April, and which include a move to central distribution, modernisation of stores, restructuring of the people side of the business and the launch of the Intersite project, a JV with the Passenger Rail Association (PRASA), which will see Metro’s going into concourses of major railway stations around SA, starting with Soshanguve and Park Stations.

Comment: When they list, as they’re rumoured to be doing, we reckon Metcash will be a buy.

Pick n Pay, eyeing a belated but determined expansion into African markets, will become the anchor tenant of Malawi’s first regional shopping centre, under development in the capital, Lilongwe. The mall, which will cover a relatively modest 18,000m² and cost $40m to develop, has been financed by the National Bank of Malawi and two major international financial institutions, and is being put together by an experienced team of South African developers, financiers, designers and contractors. As behoves Malawi’s central position, offering access into markets north east and west, the mall is to be called The Gateway, and will accommodate around 80 tenants, including of course 3,500m² worth of Pick n Pay.

Comment: Africa is retail’s last frontier, and our big boys are waggoning out in commendable droves, before the internationals pull in with their iron horses.

SPAR has rolled out its new money transfer service to 190 of its 850-odd stores, and while it’s early days yet, the signs are promising. Of SPAR’s 45 million transactions every month, around 60,000 are utility bill payments, indicating a receptiveness to the idea of SPAR as a financial services provider. The money transfer transactions, which take place at dedicated kiosks, cost the transferer R9.90 – a not inconsiderable sum for SPAR should things really get up to speed – but are free for the recipient. According to group ops director Roelf Venter, the initiative was a no-brainer. “Everybody is selling bread and milk,” he says. “You need to give customers more reasons to come into your shop.”

Comment: Especially when so many of them are drawn from the ranks of the great unbanked.

The Boxer Superstores Diski Imbizo’s, Public Viewing Areas (PVAs) developed by the retailer with the support of municipalities around the country, have proved an enormous success, outstripping initial attendance predictions by a whopping 228%. For the Mexico Bafana game which kicked off the cup, 204,485 fans attended the 18 Imbizos in areas around the country where Boxer has stores, with 24,000 people at each of the best-attended events in Sedibeng and Tzaneen. Boxer, which is building a powerful retail brand on its wholehearted involvement with the communities it serves, has been particularly impressed with the participation of local and provincial government, especially in KZN, where ten of the PVAs have been set up. The venues feature vast screens and stonking sound systems, plus performances by local bands and DJs.

Comment: Thanks to initiatives such as this, a feature of the World Cup has been that its magic, pageantry and unity have been available in one way or another to almost every South Africa. Awesome stuff.

In a possible development perhaps not entirely unrelated to the conclusion of Pick n Pay’s Antipodean Adventure, Aspen Pharmacare might be reviewing its offer to purchase Sigma Pharmaceuticals, Aus’s biggest drug distributor for R594million or 60c per share, way over the 38c the troubled company’s share is currently trading at. The share dropped 6% after the Melbourne-based Sigma mentioned that it might not make its profit forecast. The thinking among analysts is that Aspen might make a reduced offer or withdraw the offer entirely, cautioned by Pick n Pay’s example of taking a failing Aussie business then failing to do anything in particular with it at all.

Comment: Even at the price on offer, Aspen will be paying less than the company’s debt, which suggests either that they are getting a very good price or that the company had too much debt on its balance sheet in the first place.

In a development presumably entirely unrelated to the conclusion of Pick n Pay’s Antipodean Adventure, SABMiller has commenced brewing at its new JV brewery in Australia where, we are reliably informed, the locals are possessed of a powerful thirst. The 500,000 hectolitre behemoth will produce local brands like Bluetongue, a beverage said to taste something like beer but apparently made from lizards, as well as international brands like Peroni, Miller and Grolsch. Pacific Beverages, as it is known, will have the capacity to produce draft beer for disheartened Wallabies supporters, and will feature a water recycling plant which will produce water for cleaning, maintenance and fire-fighting functions.

Comment: Excellent work, SAB, for bringing decent brew to the godless heathen of that arid wasteland.

Adcock Ingram has concluded a five-year agreement with US drug giant Merck for the co-promotion and distribution of selected products including prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications. The deal will help Adcock expand its current portfolio, while giving Merck increased sales in the key African market. The tow will also look long-term at the prospect of Adcock producing generics for Merck. The deal, which comes on the back of some previous co-operation in the distribution of Merck’s Organon Bioscience line, reflects a growing trend of the big multinationals looking to promising emerging markets, whence 905 of pharmaceutical growth is set to come by 2015.

Comment: An excellent deal for SA’s second-biggest pharmaceutical business as it looks to win market share from rival Aspen.

The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, which apparently represents 11,000 retailers and manufacturers in the FMCG and other industries, has come out swinging at the Competition Commission, which last year, amid a threatening rumble of kettle drums, launched an investigation into allegedly anti-competitive practices among SA’s retail giants, including SPAR, Pick n Pay, Shoprite, Woolworths and Massmart. The probe, which the Competition describes as “complex”, appears to have stalled somewhat, leading to the recent aspersions cast on its viability by CGCSA.

Comment: These things, it must be said, do take time, unless you happen to catch the bread producers in question red-handed with a briefcase full of blueprints.

Baby steps for the retail recovery apparently, as Mrs Doubtfire over at the Reserve Bank clucks worriedly that the world has not really recovered from the recession as such, and what is to be done about the poor, dear interest rate? While gimlet analysts do acknowledge that the worst may be over, they are worried as all heck by April’s retail sales numbers, which showed an overall month-on-month decline in April after March’s surprising spike. The year-on-year figure, more encouragingly, was up 3.2% from 2.7% in March. In the meantime, the beard-tugging tweed-botherers down at the Bureau of Economic Research (BER) have mentioned nervously that the jolly old Retail Confidence Index is down 13 points to 38, dash it all.

Comment: Uncertain times, which might best be tided over in a cosy chair by a crackling fire, and a glass of good scotch whiskey.

Cheeky cockney retailer Asda has suggested to the dear old Q of E that Ma’am might save up to 27% on grocery bills if she switched from Waitrose, where she is generally to be seen pushing her little tartan shopping cart of a Saturday morning, to Asda’s more proletarian aisles. This after it was announced that Liz’s Civil List pay of £7.9million has been frozen for the 21st consecutive year.