Metcash, the awakening giant of South African wholesale, you mark our words, was involved this week in a legal tussle with brewing “beerhemoth”, gettit, SAB, at the Competition Commission, which was questioning SAB’s route to market practices. Metcash CEO Peter Dodson was called as a witness by the Commission, and among the challenging things he had to say was that until very recently SAB had offered only half of what competitors do as a distribution discount on the quarts which make up 70-odd% of Metcash’s trade in liquor, and on which the group makes a 2% margin. Metcash, argues Dodson, offers a highly efficient distribution network for SAB products, which has to be worth a bob or two. Prove it, say SAB’s attorneys, calling for every conceivable document from Metcash, up to and including their restructuring and strategic plans.

Comment: High drama at the waterhole. The Comish and SAB later decided to settle the issue.

Last week Mr Ackerman Snr exercised his legendary largesse to the tune of some R850 grands worth of Pikwik shares, which he donated to various long-standing Pick n Pay employees and family members. Pikwik, you will recall, is the investment vehicle by which the Ackerman family exercises its ongoing control over the fortunes of SA’s biggest food retailer, to the dismay of certain shareholders who would like a larger slice of the action and more swing at the AGM. One of the things which gets up shareholders noses is Pick n Pay’s strategic decision to seek higher volume though consumer value at the expense of margin, which hovers around the 2% mark, whereas Shoprite and SPAR trade more robustly at 10%. More of that shareholder trivia: next to the Ackermans, Pikwik’s biggest shareholder is Datatec CEO and teen singing sensation Jens Montanana, whose shareholding rose to just over 7% last week with the purchase of R4.5bar worth of Pikwik’s crispest.

Comment: So there you go. Thanks, Mr A.

In the grand tradition of AVI with their Jimmy Choos, diversified franchise crowd Taste Holdings, who own Scooters and Natal Wholesale Jewellers (NWJ) launched a premium jewellery store-within-a-store in various Makros in April this year. Was this a good thing? Was it heck, says Absa’s perennially grumpy analyst Chris Gilmour. Stick to your knitting, he reckons. If you do pizza, keep it pizza and don’t go all bling on the posse. And what is Makro doing selling posh trinkets? Aren’t they the big TVs and bigger bags of mealies crowd? NWJ, including Davidowns, is the only vertically integrated jewellery chain in the country, both manufacturing and selling its merchandise.

Comment: While Davidown’s must surely add a sparkly new dimension to the Makro offering, there are reports that the jeweller is not doing as well as had been hoped.

A tight rein on costs and brisk growth in emerging markets has seen Nestlé outperforming its rivals to achieve higher than expected first half sales and profits. In the Africa, Oceania and Asia region, sales were up a buoyant 10.4%, a lot snappier than back home in fortress Europe, and despite conditions the Group’s erstwhile CFO describes as “one of the most difficult periods in decades.” While the full implementation of new IT systems has played its part, helping to increase efficiencies, Nestlé has also succeeded in passing increases in input costs onto the consumer. Everyone, including Nestlé and Unilever, are downbeat about the prospects for the next six months on the global stage.

Comment: A good time, perhaps, to have a break, have a Kit Kat...

Aspen Pharmacare, which has its origins in the sleepy, dope smoking, getting up late surfer town of Durban, home also to Africa’s biggest port, the logistics hub without which Joburg would be choked of its supply of Chinese leatherware and German cars, and a city not built on an exhaustible supply of a dubiously useful commodity, that Durban, anyway Aspen is on the brink of becoming Australia’s largest supplier of prescription medication, with the imminent purchase of Sigma Pharmaceuticals for the much reduced sum of R5.8billions – bidding opened at around R9billion, but Sigma’s books did not stand up to the due diligence. Aspen is confident that it can turn the ailing business around.

Comment: The bleak shores of that benighted landmass are littered with the bleached ribs of once-idealistic South African enterprises. We have a feeling Aspen will not be joining those unfortunates.

brandhouse, which could really do with a capital B, but that’s the way they want it, has grown its share of rising market by 2.6% in recent months, for a total of 12.8%. Some of this growth has apparently been at the expense of SAB, whose share has come off by 2.5% to 87%. SAB has indicated that it would quite like that 3% back, thank you very much, and that it takes a dim view of brandhouse’s apparent intent to capture a 20% share of the local beer market with its clinking cooler bag full of green bottled beers.

Comment: While Amstel’s growth seems to have peaked, it has apparently not been hurt by the launch of the much-disputed 660ml quart(ish) bottle, which has brought slow brewed, extra matured drinking pleasure to a whole new market of discerning drinkers who happen to frequent taverns and shebeens.

Doing good really is good for business, apparently. Bear with us while we give you a couple of non-industry examples, but the leathery-handed okes over at Merensky Timber reckon that adopting international standards of sustainability has put them in the way of some pret–teh interesting export deals, while Nedbank has been turning non-compliant suppliers away from their shiny green doors in droves, and presumably rewarding those who look after their water and energy usage with lucrative contracts. Accenture tell us that globally 93% of CEOs believe that sustainability issues will be critical to the future of their businesses, 86% want investors to better price sustainability issues into valuations, while 91% say their company will be employing new technologies and innovations to help meet their sustainability goals over the next five years.

Comment: The last time business mobilised to make big tom out of a doing the right thing was World War 2.

Here’s one from the UK, where research-wallah’s IGD have discovered that 46% of shoppers are actively looking for new products when shopping, and almost a third of them have bought a new product in the last month. When deciding on whether to buy and try, the canny Brits take 5 factors into consid., viz:

If the product is healthier
Whether it is better quality
If it offers better performance
Whether it has an interesting flavour/smell or recipe
Whether it makes life easier
Whether it is dipped in chocolate, fried in batter and served with a pint of lukewarm lager

Comment: OK we made that last one up. But the rest are pukka.

Despite the Great Decession, those crazy Yanks are still keen on issues of health and wellness, especially when it comes to food purchases. The average household, according to the Hartman Group, spends $148 per month on products which have a “wellness halo” something which is presumably only available in God’s Greatest Country of All Time. Ain’t that swell.

Massmart has identified an irregularity in Shield Chemicals’ BEE scorecard, possibly resulting in the car-care company losing shelf space on Massmart shelves and having to answer some awkward enquiries from other major retailers throughout the S of A. Shield is conducting a forensic investigation to determine how the scorecard slipped through the cracks, while (and here’s where the plot gets decidedly chewy) BEE verification agency, Emex Trust, is convinced that Shield has manufactured their very own documents… gripping stuff.

Gareth Ackerman has spoken out against the limitations on press freedom which could result from the proposed media appeals tribunal and Protection of Information Bill. While Pick n Pay has had its own battles with the press in the past, he opposed the measures for a range of well-articulated reasons, not the least of which is the potential for damage to SA as an investment destination. Trade Intelligence fully endorses his position, and commends Pick n Pay’s leadership on this important issue. For a full report on his comments click here.