A very happy 50th anniversary to an extremely sprightly Clicks, which celebrated the milestone by various acts of largesse, notably the R1m value donation of reusable sanitary pads to 16 schools around the country under the Girls on the Go programme. Clicks staff have identified 50 projects as needing help; another 34 projects will receives support through donations of toiletries, infrastructure and basic essentials. Another milestone for Clicks this year was its achievement of market capitalisation of R50bn, catapulting the Group into the JSE’s Top-40 index for the first time. And attendant on this, the growth of the share by 25% in the last 12 months. And that’s not all, sticking to multiples of five as seems appropriate: Clicks recently opened its 500th pharmacy, in the Park Station store. Clicks currently has 650 stores and is aiming for 900, each with a pharmacy, in the foreseeable future.

Comment: Excellent work from an icon of South African retail.

Making up half the sky this Women’s Month are Shoprite, which to mark the event are unveiling a series of women-headed crèches with which it has partnered. In keeping with President Cyril’s call for the eradication of poverty through early childhood development, Shoprite is helping the centres through training, structural upgrades and access to nutritional meals for learners. To date six early childhood development centres in five provinces have been transformed through the intervention. The business is also increasing its spend with women-owned suppliers, have upped this total by an impressive 148% since the beginning of the year. This is of course off a low base, but the individual gains are impressive: one farmer who used to supply Shoprite with 90-odd bunches of dhanya a week is now delivering 900 per day. Shoprite anticipates further gains for women in the supply chain in the next two years.

Comment: The empowerment of women in business and in society is an opportunity that will make the technology revolution look lame by comparison.

You’re not going to believe that this hasn’t happened already, but iconic and classy South African brand Appletiser is about to take the world by storm. Appletiser, you will recall, was bought by Coke just two years ago; they have subsequently rolled it out across Southern Africa and are now taking on the European market, with a launch scheduled for Spain, where a test of 20,000 presentation kits went gangbusters, and where 43,000 customers across that thirsty peninsula have agreed to stock the signature vials of fizzy golden goodness. The refreshing beverage is now brewed and bottled locally in the finest Bilbao glass. A bit of back story here: Appletiser was born in 1966 in Elgin farm, where farmer Edmond Lombardi had the genius idea of adding bubbles to apple juice and the even more genius idea of adding the suffix “tiser” to the noun “apple” in a move that seems destined for greatness on the American market.

Comment: And perhaps that moment of greatness has now arrived. And Coke, if you’re out there: the Germans are addicted to something they call apfelschorle, which they make by adding bubbelwasser to apfelsaft. You’re welcome.

With the news that Oceana Brands have made permanent the appointment of acting CEO Imraan Soomra comes the opportunity to revisit the controversial arrangement that put him there in the first place. Mr Soomra, you may recall, was CFO of the Group when François Kuttel tendered his unexpected resignation as CEO, to take up ownership of 75% of US outfit Westbank Fishing, which has a deal to supply Oceana’s Louisiania-based Daybrook processing facility, and in which Oceana itself hold the other 25%. US law requires that US fishing vessels be majority-owned and operated by US citizens, something of which, presumably, Oceana would have been aware before it took a put option to acquire the portion of Westbank which went instead to Kuttel’s Makimry Patronus vehicle.

Comment: Shenanigans? Skullduggery, even? At the very least, derring do, and most certainly on the high seas.

A mixed bag, as usual, for the dear old SA economy this week. First the good: the rand breached the $13 mark on the welcome tidings of a trade surplus for June. And by the time you read this, we may have had a spot of good news on the manufacturing front: economists, who like a stopped clock are right occasionally, predicted that manufacturing production for June may see an improvement of as much as 3% on steady demand from our trading partners. Next, the bad: According to PwC, which needs aCronyM therapy, South Africa took first place in their Global Economic Crime Survey 2018, meaning as far as we can tell, that 77% of our businesses have been hit by fraud. Another shameful measure may be found on the City Press Wealth Index, where South Africa’s 50 richest men own as much as the combined GDPs of Mozambique and Namibia. And we used the term “men” advisedly: there’s only one woman in the top 50. And then the truly ugly: Unemployment rose to 27.2% in the second quarter, from 26.7% in the first, with the loss of 108,000 jobs in manufacturing, 96,000 in social services and 58,000 in trade.

Comment: This last set of numbers renders the rest relative at best: what good is manufacturing growth and personal wealth if jobs do not result?

Certain Aussie suppliers are complaining about Aldi’s “extreme capitalism” and warning retailers that unless they are prepared to decimate their ranges and offer everything for a song, they’re going to go out of business. Mate: you can tamper with the balls, but not the business model. In worrying news for suppliers, Tesco and Carrefour have sealed a long-term partnership, coming into effect in October, aimed at upping their already stupendous buying power, and Aldi is warning retailers to stock up in preparation for a hard “no deal” Brexit. And then something about Tesco’s Clubcard and vouchers which we can’t even.

"Our new customer kiosk destination will allow customers to enjoy transactional capability over a host of value-added services including bill payment and ticketing,” says Ticketpro CEO Brandon Duffield. If we may translate: you’ll now be able to buy tickets and pay bills at Ticketpro customer kiosks at SPARS all over South Africa. Excellent news forms the Verdant One, moving more deeply into Shoprite territory every day.