This just in from our friends at Unitrade Management Services: following two intense years of negotiations with potential investors, UMS have announced the merger of numerous successful entrepreneurs together with UMS and BEST BUY into a new consolidated holding company, which will go by the name of “Unitrade Investment Holdings.” The group is divided into two segments, the first housing voluntary trading associations UMS and BEST BUY, and the second known as “Consolidated Store Holdings”. All liquor businesses associated with the merged stores have been removed into a separate entity, ensuring that the businesses of UMS and Best Buy remain in respect of UMS’ members of the Islamic faith, a move that aims “to ensure their values and life commitments are enshrined in our own constitution.” Nice one there. Jad Pereira will remain CEO and Executive Chairman of the consolidated group, with Dustin Pereira as head of UMS and BEST BUY, and Jose Correia at the helm of Consolidated Store Holdings. The investment into this venture is led by a consortium across the UMS and BEST BUY membership base, and the Sefelana group (the first listed Botswana entity) who bring a wealth of experience with them.

Comment: Exciting stuff from within the independent retail and wholesale space. We've seen impressive growth and developments in response to a tough context from UMS. We look forward to following Unitrade’s developments into the new year. Be sure to come and hear directly from Dustin and some of UMS's most significant members at the Ti Independent Trade Forum in 2018.

As followers of social media may be aware, when the Bela-Bela SUPERSPAR in Warmbaths burned down in September, the owner decided to keep the 150 staff there busy with community projects rather than laying them off during the rebuild. So far, they’ve contributed 30,000 hours on projects which include building churches, tidying up a library, planting veggie gardens, refurbishing hospitals and cleaning schools. Further than this, there’s not too much detail – although it appears from the posts that the various projects were handled by different teams from within the store – so Team Fish and Chips, for example, were responsible for the work on the Mmampathile Public Primary Library – which must also be good for morale both now and when the doors reopen.

Comment: One of those stories which makes us proud to be South African, and demonstrates what a truly humane business model can look like. Says Maryla Masojada, MD of Trade Intelligence, “Steinhoff, zuptagate with KPMG, McKinsey and Bell Pottinger, are the rock-bottom, the antithesis of what we as South Africans and us FMCG’ers, want and need. This story is another reminder that each of us, every day, can influence where we are headed as a country; what doing good business and what the much spoken about “community-based retailing” actually means. It’s this, retailers truly integrating and responding to their local community’s reality – and sticking to the values and principles that count. These are the only way to sustainable business, healthy, employed shoppers and future profits.”

“Welcome to the Makro Marketplace, shoppers of the future, where with the click of a button on your personal communications device you are able to access millions of products not available at your local Makro Hyperplex 2000 (endless aisles in action). Here at the Makro Marketplace, we bring likeminded sellers together across all of our categories. They determine their own selling price and then we facilitate the transaction, retaining a selling commission based on the selling price of their products. Sellers will then receive payment within 30 days, and we at Makro will attend to the shipping as part of the deal. While we have some say as to what gets listed, the programme is available to any aspiring supplier with a registered business, valid VAT number and current tax clearance certificate.”

Comment: Massmart are clearly serious about being the Amazon – or at least the Walmart – of Africa. A bold and decisive move.

Taking another step on its Good Business Journey this week is Woolworths, which is specifying to farmers the maximum allowable agrochemical residue levels on the fresh produce they procure. “Agrochemicals?” you ask, a quizzical expression on your face. Simply put, they’re the natural or synthetic chemicals used to target pests and diseases in the crops we and our livestock use for food. In recent decades, their use has become increasingly regulated, and testing has now reached the point where parts per billion can be measured. With the rise of social media, concern over their use has at times verged on hysteria, as punters have become more informed about issues such as toxicity and the rise of resistant fungi. Riding this wave of information, Woolworths is working with its produce suppliers to implement integrated pest management practices, and encouraging them to avoid using pesticides and other agrochemicals unless absolutely necessary.

Comment: We have 7 billion people to feed, and only one planet with which to do it. But we need to ensure that we do so both responsibly and sustainably.

Hey I’ve got an idea: let’s go start a business in Kenya! Hang on – I’ve just had an even better idea – let’s not. One of the many businesses drawing a similar conclusion this week is Tiger Brands, which is on the process of selling its stake in Haco Tiger Brands East Africa back to the original owner, Mr Chris Kirubi, with whom The Striped One entered a joint venture back in the ’08. Now, after a butting of heads vis-à-vis the strategic direction of the business, Tiger has obtained the go ahead from the Competition Authorities of Kenya (CAK) to show its heels to the warm wind of the Maasai Mara and hightail it south. The deal should fetch something north of the R45m the shares are said to be worth, Mr Kirubi being willing to pay a premium to regain control. Haco’s model is to manufacture and distribute major brands under license; Tiger prefers to bring its own brands to market and no longer supports the Haco way of doing things. On the upside, Tiger will still be on the shelves in Kenya, either in partnership with Haco or through a third party.

Comment: The vein of independence runs strong in Kenyan business.

The Mozambican economy received a much needed shot in the arm this week with the welcome news that Heineken has laid the foundation stone of a $100million brewery in that thirsty geography, between the Marracuene and Manhic¸a districts in the province of Maputo. Heineken opened a sales and marketing office in Mozambique just a year ago; it’s safe to say they have a degree of confidence on their prospects there. They are also looking at sourcing ingredients for their crisp and refreshing beverage locally, in keeping with a policy of sourcing 60% of raw material from Africa by 2020. In other hooch-related news, Pernod-Ricard remains committed to our continent where it holds just 4% of the spirits market, compared with rival (and largest spirit-maker in the world Diageo) which holds 15.5%. Pernod has grown here by about 15% per annum for the past couple years, so definitely worth sticking around.

Comment: With all the Vision 2020’s and Masterplan: 2020’s kicking about, 2020 is going to be a very exciting or indeed disappointing year.

The S&P Ratings downgrade is a fait accompli; its fallout has yet to make itself felt. In the meantime, what you might want to do is have a look here for some very handy slides one of our diabolically clever analysts put together in order to explain how we got here and how it’s likely to affect the South African consumer and hence this great industry we call home.

Comment: Enjoy (if that’s the right word) the read.

Over this last year, South African businesses spent R9bn on corporate social investment projects, compared with R1.5bn 20 years ago. Education received almost half of the R9bn, followed by social and community development and health. And where did the money come from? 62% of it from the mining, financial and retail sectors, as it happens, with median spend across businesses up R3m year-on-year to R22m. Most of cash went to the big three provinces of Gauteng, KZN and the Western Cape, and 89% of the cash was channelled through non-profits. It wasn’t all cash though: 45% of businesses reported non-cash giving this year compared with 35% last year. Future trends include the scaling back of piecemeal contributions in favour of larger, flagship projects, the integration of CSI with other functions in a business and the need for companies to take on political and social issues. All of this per kind favour of CSI consultancy, Trialogue’s ‘Business in Society’ handbook.

Comment: Some inspiring numbers in there. CSI is a significant driver of development in South Africa, and long may that last.

A colleague of ours who knows these sorts of things reckons that neither Christo Wiese nor Whitey Basson had an inkling of the juggernaut of shady practices that was barrelling down the tracks toward the Steinhoff empire. Whitey, says our source, left Shoprite because he fundamentally disagreed with the Steinhoff takeover. And that, until the next exciting instalment of the saga, is all we have to say about that.

Yehaaah. Git dogies! Git, git! That’s right, cowboys and of course cowgirls …. cowpersons, it’s time for the weekly roundup. Although this week we have a sadly depleted herd. In the UK, Tesco execs are on trial for their £250m accounting scandal, which in these dark times seems like a quaintly inconsequential problem. And over in the Land of the Free, Walmart has jumped – belatedly, as usual, but at scale – onto the meal kit delivery craze, partnering with businesses like TakeOut Kit and Home Chef to bring schlep in a box for around $30 to the doors of time-pressed punters who, come to think of it, probably don’t feel like even opening the box right now. And that’s a wrap. Probably in kit form.