Those Woolworths interims then, served to us just yesterday. Turnover growth up +1.9%, although this was below the growth of +2.5% reported in the same period last year, partly perhaps, because it takes into account one day less of pre-Christmas trade compared to 2017. Food was once again the star performer at +6.3% turnover growth, while Fashion, Beauty & Home showed just how up against it it really is with sales -2%. And then there’s David Jones, lumbering its way through structural and management changes, and an Australian consumer who just well… isn’t buying it. But for more of those snappy numbers that you all love, have a look at our summary here.

Comment: The challenges have seemingly been identified, and stratagems put in place to address them. The next six months will be telling for the Woolworths business.

A trading update from SPAR, for the oddly specific period of the 17 weeks up to the 26th of January. Total sales for the period were up +8.2%?to R36.53bn, and +7.6% on a like-store basis within Southern Africa. The core business grew sales +5.7%, or +3.8% comparably, reflecting the restrained trading environment in which our industry finds itself, but also, a good result when looked at relative to Shoprite, for example. Tops, however, grew +19.2%, and Build it +10.3%; these have long been bulwarks of SPAR’s performance in tough times. Overseas? The trend continues: Ireland up by +8.4% in euro terms, with a boost from recent acquisitions 4 Aces Wholesale and Corrib Foods, and Switzerland down by -1.5% in francs under tricky local conditions. The pharmaceutical business continues to please, with distributor S. Buys making a healthy maiden contribution to results.

Comment: SPAR has hit upon a mix which seems to be working. Be good to see the issues in Switzerland ironed out, then watch the business really fly.

It’s a bit of a slow news week, to be honest, so news of shopping bags:  to their existing reusable offering, Pick n Pay are adding a line of reusable, netted fruit and veggie bags, and a new lower-cost shopping bag made of recycled plastic bottles. This from Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, Director of Transformation: “Our customers have told us they want an alternative to plastic bags and would like to “refuse the bag”. We know that there are many considerations, such as size, durability and price, so we are working closely with our customers to trial various options.” In other PnP news, their Market Store Partnership is going strong, with the opening of the Matlala Market in Thokoza near Durban, adding to the haul of 21 independently-owned converted spazas that Pick n Pay, together with partners like the National Empowerment Fund’s iMbewu Fund, are helping to open around the Beloved Country.

Comment: Nice examples of social responsibility in action there PnP. We’ll take a couple of those produce bags, thanks.

Shoprite and Checkers supers have joined retailers from geographies such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam in getting on board with the JET8 Wallet, an excitingly-named virtual contraption that allows punters to earn hard cash from their social media postings, send and receive the associated social currency called J8T within their friend group, buy virtual collectibles and artwork, buy actual stuff from actual retailers, and assist them in earning social currency.Currently, 30,000 points of sale globally are available to users. In other news from the Big Red One, Sanjeev Raghubir has been appointed as Shoprite’s new group sustainability manager.

Comment: Back in the day, social currency was knowing exactly who at The Rift owed you a Black Label, and how likely they would be to repay it on any given night. Be that as it may, Shoprite have been early adopters of anything that gives them another way of receiving payment from their shoppers, and kudos for that.

A clutch of interims this week (a brace would have been two); let’s whisk through them then. Pioneer Foods grew revenue +7.8% for the four months through end Jan, benefiting from higher price inflation in bread, flour, wheat and export fruit, and excluding sales from recent acquisitions Wellington’s and Lizi’s. Bread volumes were up, suggesting that even in these difficult times, everyone still loves a sarmie. And Bokomo Foods UK has weathered the Brexit storm rather well, considering, contributing R3.2bn to group coffers. RCL FOODS, in the meantime, have issued a profit warning for the six months through December because of difficulties in its chicken and sugar businesses, both of which are more than a little volatile – the latter in the face of foreign dumping and weak local demand, the former as a result of steep input costs and high levels of imports. Their grocery brands have done well, though, which rather (validates) their strategy of diversification. Finally, Quantum foods said that higher input prices and lower egg selling prices had worked their dark magic on the bottom line, with a decrease in earnings for the first four months of the FY compared with the same period last year.

Comment: We wouldn’t be a chicken man if you paid us. Just don’t have the gumption for it.

Hard times over at the Coke factory, where as many as 1,000 workers face unemployment. Coca-Cola Beverages SA is on a restructuring drive, driven thither by the twin impacts of the sugar tax which hit in April last year and an ailing economy, the ebbing tide on which all boats have dropped. The levy, you will recall, imposes a cost of 2.1c per gram of sugar content over 4g per 100ml, and has boosted state coffers to the tune of R2.3bn since it was implemented. As a result, Coke has reduced sugar content across its stable by 20%, but also raised prices – something its competitors cannily did not do, sensing the rare opportunity, one supposes, for growth in market share against the world’s otherwise unassailable leader in sugary drinks. In other Coke news, their “Share a Coke” campaign has ended in disarray, with someone predictably ruining it for everyone else by getting Coke to print a Xitsonga profanity on one of the cans in the social media component of the promotion.

Comment: That boy see me after assembly.

The Budget speech then, let’s hear it. “Sin taxes” – a phrase that only comes out around this time of year before scuttling back to retirement – are predictably up, on ciggies and booze except for sorghum, which escapes the axe this time. And while individual tax rates are unchanged, social grants are very slightly up, to the tune of +2%, which will provide relief for our poorest citizens. And that’s about where the good news ended. The deficit was +0.2% higher than predicted, at 4.2%, and is expected to climb to 4.5% next year. The tax shortfall was R43bn, more than a touch higher than the R27.4bn predicted in October. Bailing out Eskom will cost us R69bn over the next three years, but will come with strings attached in the person of a chief reorganisation officer who will provide oversight. A little bit of good news is that the Government’s own wage bill has dropped to the tune of around 16,000 employees per month.

Comment: The ratings agencies will be looking closely at the numbers between now and the election. But really, the Minister has probably made the best of the situation in which we find ourselves. Time to tough it out.

Ongoing industrial action cost Dis-Chem a packet in December sales and will cost yet more before the strike is done, says the newishly-listed retailer, with comparable revenue down -2.5% despite the success of their MicroPopz! promotion. The National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw) you may recall, is demanding a minimum wage of R12,500 across the board, and an annual increase of 12.5% guaranteed for the next three years for those already making over minimum. Tough times for a business which might be forgiven for wondering if listing is worth the additional scrutiny that comes with it.

In China, retail sales grew only +8.5% YoY over the annual consumer festival that is the Lunar New Year, which this year fell in early Feb. Last year, the increase was +10.2%, another sign that explosive growth in China might have topped out. In the UK, Tesco have (a little oddly) taken the launch of a report into the use of digital technology at the NHS to talk up their own, superior ability to track and measure the needs of their customers. And in the US, management consultancy Bain & Co are talking down the impact of Aldi and Lidl on local retailers, insisting (their words) that “U.S. grocers can effectively stand up to these hard discounters but that they need to remain vigilant and innovate in strategic areas to keep their edge”. Bless.