Our friends over at SPAR have sent the newsroom into a tailspin, with grizzled old reporters chainsmoking at their typewriters and harried interns weeping into their herbal tea on the release of the interims through March. But we’re equal to the task: turnover growth at +5.6%, assisted thither by the early arrival of Easter this year. SPAR Southern Africa was slightly up on this at +6.8% in wholesale turnover, with help from both TOPS and Build it, and the inclusion of S Buys pharmaceutical wholesaler. Offshore acquisitions, which service the high-margin convenience sector, helped with gross profit margin, which increased to 9.9%; margin here at home improved slightly to 8.2%. Exciting news for the business is that rather than sitting on its hands it is embarking on a strategic review of what the member organisation of the 21st century looks like. For more on this breaking story, have a look at the Trade Intelligence special commentary.

Comment: Spoiler alert: it’s probably going to look a lot like whatever SPAR figures out it should look like. Excellent work, the Verdant One.

Massmart has a tradition of underplaying its results in the days leading up to their announcement, but this time, the punters took them seriously. Having hinted at an almost 70% decline in interim earnings for the six months through June, on the back of slower spending at the lower end and a R112m restructuring exercise, the Men in Black saw their share price tank by almost 20% on the JSE last Friday. The restructuring in question saw the relocation of the Game head office from Durban to Gauteng, and with it the loss of a number of jobs. Massmart argue that the restructuring will save R52m per annum in the long run. Syd Vianello, doyenne of retail analysts, has commended the Group for its frankness. In more positive news, Massmart has been named the overall winner of the inaugural ABSA Business Day Supplier Development Awards for businesses that are building a better South Africa and an inclusive economy through innovative and impactful supplier development initiatives.

Comment: Massmart is running the hard yards at the moment, and has been for some time. It is to be hoped that their perseverance will pay off.

Rather than vague promises of “winning in fresh”, as virtually every retailer has said it was going to do for the last decade and more, Pick n Pay has come up with a fresh produce strategy, and it’s a corker: a three-tiered offering (based on global private label best practice) of the good stuff, at three different price points, packaged so that punters know exactly what they are getting for their hard-earned buck. So the produce in the Own Brand range may be slightly flawed to the eye but otherwise nutritious and tasty, and will be cheaper, the mid-tier- range will give you what you see on the packaging, while the premium range will offer shoppers that little bit extra – easy-to-peel naartjies, for example, or perfectly-aged free-range steak. To date, 80 product lines have been repositioned and 28 new product lines have been introduced across fruit and vegetable and butchery, with more in development.

Comment: We’ve been trundling this missive out for the last ten years and more, and by golly it’s good to have something truly fresh to report on every once in a while.

Four months ago, Woolworths wrote down the value of its ill-considered Antipodean acquisition John Dixon by nearly R7bn. Last week, it unceremoniously dumped David Jones, CEO of its Australian operation, in order to “cut costs”. Oops sorry. We got two Australian names mixed up there, common mistake. David Jones is of course the retailer, John Dixon the unceremonious dumpee. Be that as it may, Woolies is committed to going the course with DJ, which it bought for R20bn in 2014. This has analysts concerned, believing as they do that the David Jones department store model is long past its sell-by. They’re also concerned that the premium-food business as practiced so successfully in SA could struggle to find traction – and even willing suppliers – in a land where, we are reliably informed, “women glow and men plunder.”

Comment: On the first issue, we may agree cautiously with the pundits. But having travelled long and far, we believe that the Woolies food model, with its focus on customer experience and quality, is ripe for global expansion.

Things are tough out there for manufacturers of packaged consumers goods – and when we say “out there” we mean out in the wide world, where all but the top four – Unilever, Coke, Nestlé and PepsiCo – have failed to offer their punters a positive return on investment over a five-year period. Why, you ask? Big changes in both the retail environment and in consumer preferences, with private label taking an increasing share of shelf space in the majors, online retail (in most categories except food) making like a disruptor and disrupting, and bearded millennials rejecting big brands in favour of more artisanal fare. However, in this testing environment, Unilever has excelled, providing returns of 24% over two years and 34% over five, doubling turnover in Europe and increasing its share in emerging markets to an unbelievable 70%. And this after “St” Paul Polman had informed investors that his job was “not to serve shareholders, but to serve consumers and our customers." For a more detailed look at what Le Grand Bleu has done right, we suggest you go here.

Comment: But to wrap things up, doing well by doing good, but also good business practices being good for business. Amazing stuff.

High old times for Pioneer, which anticipates that its acquisition of the other half of Heinz Foods SA is likely to boost its turnover by R600m in the next financial year. In the last six months, in the meantime, the business has posted a +12% increase in gross profit to R2.9bn, despite a decline in revenue of 3% to R9.9bn, with volumes up +4%. The decline resulted from price deflation in some commodities, including maize, wheat and rice, and the profits could have been higher had Pioneer not bought forward a little too enthusiastically during the drought – a position from which the business seems to have almost entirely recovered. The Essential Foods division saw a handsome +70% increase in operating profit, while sales in the groceries division grew +9% to R2.65bn. The only category showing real cause for concern was snacking, which declined in both sales and profitability.

Comment: Excellent work from an iconic South African business. Future, bright, shades etc.

Lots of economic news this week, and more to come after Wednesday. In the meantime though, S&P leave our rating unchanged at stable, anticipating a pick-up in private-sector fixed investment and approving of the lower inflation rate, although they are a touch concerned about land expropriations. And on that inflation rate – while it ticked up a tad this week to 4.5%, the Reserve Bank in its wisdom has decided to leave the repo rate at 6.5%. The government expects state-owned enterprises to invest as much as R420bn in the economy over the next five years, which is nice, and Cyril’s doing his bit by donating half of his salary to a fund under the Nelson Mandela Foundation. And the World Bank has thoughtfully provided us with a roadmap to a more equitable economy, rather than the prescriptive finger-wagging with which that institution has long been identified. At the heart of this roadmap, they say, lies the strengthening of the social contract – which to be honest is looking a little frayed around the edges right now.

Comment: Lots of work to be done, and some hard conversations to be had. The thing about those conversations, is that everyone needs to listen, even those historically inclined to giving orders.

Part time workers now account for 50% of Walmart workers, up from 20% in ‘05, a good thing? You decide. On the upside they’re joining a movement to ease the path of stay-at-home mums back into non-childcare-related employment. In the UK, rumours are bubbling that troubled high-end retailer Marks & Sparks could become an acquisition target for Amazon as it seeks to replicate its Whole Foods strategy elsewhere. And Asda and Sainsbury’s £13bn merger will make it the biggest grocery retailer on the block.

Shoprite has launched a new mobile money service to extend its outreach to SA’s many unbanked shoppers. By using their Shoprite Money mobile wallet, punters will be able to deposit, withdraw, send money and buy groceries at any of the till points in all Checkers, Shoprite, Checkers Hyper and Usave stores – all without the benefit of a formal bank account. A revolutionary move and a great way to attract new customers and retain their loyalty.

Those Rhodes Foods interims you’ve read all the way down to the bottom just to get: turnover up +16.6% to R2.5bn, with operating profit down 22% to R162m due to challenges in the international business and costs related to its various recent acquisitions, including Ma Baker and Pakco. On the upside, regional sales account for 84% of total revenue in the last six months and it’s here rather than internationally that future efforts will be focused.