News from up north is that Shoprite is opening its first wholly-owned DC in Nigeria, a 4,700m² facility, most of which will be used by Freshmark, the Big Red One’s fruit and vegetable procurement, buying and distribution arm, and the rest of which will be for dry goods. Located in Lagos, the DC boasts all the mod cons, including a banana-ripening room, and allows suppliers, including small farmers, to deliver directly to the business for easy distribution, and for Shoprite to add value by doing some of its own packaging. A little further South, and to the right, Shoprite is expanding its operations in Zambia, opening its 35^th  store in that mineral-rich democracy. The new store, its 11^th in Lusaka, is located in the Novare Great North Mall, adding another 142 jobs to the 4,200-strong workforce in the country, and another shot in the arm for local suppliers, who provide the business with 78% of its merchandise in-country.

Comment: Shoprite’s advance into Africa is textbook stuff – it hasn’t been easy, but they are nailing it. The Ti analyst team are tracking corporate FMCG retail growth in Africa closely – contact the Ti team to see how they’re stacking up.

Since its arrival post-listing in the big league, Dis-Chem has discovered that it’s not all beer, skittles and kudos from the punters. It’s currently in the midst of an ugly little skirmish with the National Union of Public Service & Allied Workers (Nupsaw), whose members have – unusually – been banned by the Labour Court from picketing outside Dis-Chem stores until the 27 February, after a legal strike turned sour and was marred by incidents of violence and retaliation. At issue is Nupsaw’s demand for a minimum wage of R12,500 per month, an across-the-board 12.5% increase for those earning above the minimum, a guaranteed annual bonus and recognition for the union.

Comment: Since the fragmentation of the unions and the vast numbers of unemployed South Africans have weakened the bargaining positions of workers, goodwill rather than violence and intimidation might be better chips to bring to the table.

Last year, some South African retailers enjoyed a modest Christmas bonanza, with Shoprite and SPAR each growing sales at seven-something percent. This year? In the words of our Magic 8-ball: “Uncertain.” On the one hand, we’re just clawing our way out of recession, South Africans are increasingly credit-poor, VAT is up, and so is the interest rate. Retail sales for September grew only +0.7% YoY. On the other hand, we’re clawing our way out of recession, the price of petrol is down, and we’re not wracked with uncertainty about the state of our presidency, unlike last year. SPAR has reported, cautiously, that its local sales remained strong through November, so that’s something. However – and it’s a big one – there’s load shedding, which could have a massive impact on peak season shopping hours.

Comment: If there was such a thing as Culpable Econocide, those responsible for the outages would rightly be serving time right now.

Comment: Genius, and hopefully their early entry into the market is going to benefit Royco, because cue the rush.

The South Gauteng High Court has given the nod for a class action by which 1,000 victims of this year’s listeriosis outbreak, which killed 200 people and sickened many, many more, may claim compensation. Lawyers believe the payments could amount to over R2bn in total, a hefty chunk off the bottom line. Tiger have agreed to cooperate with the action, but do not admit guilt. In the meantime, they have resumed operations at their Polokwane plant, just a month after re-opening the Germiston factory. Further afield, Tiger’s Zimbabwean associate, National Foods, is closing down its flour mills in the face of a foreign currency crunch which has left it unable to repatriate payments to foreign wheat suppliers. Operations will be resumed, they say, once they’re able to pay up and their suppliers are able to start delivery again.

Comment: Truly an annus horribilis for the Striped One, although more so for the victims of the listeriosis outbreak and their families. Devastating all round.

The Bureau of Economic Research, as serious a body of head-scratchers and pencil-suckers as you’re likely to find this side of the Chicago School, believes that retail is showing signs of recovery in the last three months of the year after a disappointing third quarter, which was blighted by a decline in consumer sentiment to 7 on the index from 22 in the second quarter. Being economists, they’re hedging of course: “Confidence (among retailers) was supported by higher sales volumes and a slight improvement in overall profitability,” they say. “However, trading conditions remain tough with no meaningful pick-up expected over the festive season”. In slightly more upbeat news, the cheerfully-named short-term lender Wonga’s Festive Spending Survey reveals that South African shoppers are likely to spend around six grand apiece this Chrisbo, much of it going (duh! obvs!) on food and drink, travel, gifts and entertainment.

Comment: Mixed messages then. Let’s all gather in Jan for a post mortem over some slightly stale mince pies.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) has appointed Jacques Vermeulen as its new group chief executive, with effect from 1 December. He has served at the soda pump, man and boy, since 1995, most recently as MD of the international division. In other news, Coca-Cola has pledged more than R500m over three years to stimulate recycling industries across southern and eastern Africa, creating over 19,000 income opportunities, many of them for women, as part of its ‘World Without Waste’ strategy.

Global food commodity prices declined -1.3% from October and -8.5% YoY for the month of November, according to the latest Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Food Price Index. The drop is driven by a big decline in the price of palm and other vegetable oils, which hit a 12-year low for the month. Cereals and dairy were also down a touch, although sugar was up. Thought you’d want to know.

The case against Tesco UK’s ex MD Christopher Bush, who was MD of Tesco UK, and food commercial director John Scouler was thrown out on flimsy evidence on the part of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office last week. The two had been accused (coughguiltycough!) of fiddling the numbers to inflate the share price and boost their bonuses. Rival Aldi, in the meantime, steamed ahead with its expansion, opening a record eight stores in one day. In Aus, meanwhile, Aldi are working with suppliers to enforce the Modern Slavery Act, which is aimed at stamping out slavery in supply chains.