Here we are at the bitter end of what has been a bruising results season for almost everyone. The Men in Black have proved no exception, with sales up +2.9% to R90.9bn for the year through December, but trading profit down -16.8% to R2.1bn. Massmart has of course been up against the same conditions which have plagued the rest of the industry – slack economic growth, the VAT increase, unemployment, deflation in food and durable goods, and higher fuel prices – but has also had to absorb some R161m in restructuring costs, particularly related to the move of Game’s head office to Gauteng. Game itself has underperformed, with sales in the Massdiscounters unit declining from R20bn to R19.7bn, as traditional supermarkets muscled in on Game’s stronghold in GM, while Game failed to return the compliment in Food. On the upside, the business has plans for 47 store openings across the Group, including the promising geographies of Kenya and Zambia, and the tiny kingdom of Cornubia, where Makro’s largest KZN store is soon to open.

Comment: Tough times, but Massmart are not sugar coating it, and have the grit and, it seems, the strategy to come back swinging.

A couple of weeks ago, we reported on the launch of the TymeBank offering in Boxer Superstores around the country. Of course, TymeBank is being launched across the Group, and PnP have rather savvily tied it onto their Smart Shopper programme, which needs some love after they slashed the value of the points a couple years ago now. So from hereon in, punters using their TymeBank debit card will double their haul of Smart Shopper points, getting a point for every ront spent rather than for two, and will even earn a point for every R3 spent when paying with their TymeBank card at any vendor in South Africa. In the run-up to the official launch, the business had already signed up 80,000 account holders. In other PnP news, residents of Windhoek may now order their groceries online from the Big Blue at www.buyonline.com.na, with an initial offering of 1,300 lines. Buyonline is an independent business established by four starry-eyed young Namibian tech entrepreneurs; Pick n Pay is its first major retailer.

Comment: Pick n Pay are starting to join some pretty significant dots in positioning the business for the 21st century.

Fruit & Veg City’s Freshstop has just opened its 300th forecourt store, a good enough milestone as any at which to take stock and in itself a heck of an achievement. The partnership with Chevron kicked off ten years ago now, would you believe it, and with a new focus on logistics, distribution, and IT support, they are planning for accelerated growth in the coming years. They’re also looking at extending their offering across the economic spectrum. One of the signature features of the Freshstop offering is its plethora, if that’s the word, of in-house food service brands, including Crispy Chicken, Grill to Go, Hooked On fish and chips, Hot Dog Bar, Africaz, and Seattle Coffee, that serve as little stores-within-a-store to expand the choices for South Africa’s hungry travellers and enhance the customer experience. Freshstop is of course not without its competitors, which include Pick n Pay Expresses, Woolworths Foodstops and Spar Expresses. Undeterred, they’re planning to double turnover to R4bn and add another 100 stores in the next four years.

Comment: There are few places left for expansive growth in South African retail. FVC cannily identified one, and have built a great business there.

IMPERIAL Logistics, which as you may recall recently unbundled from its motor-trade stable-mate, has released its maiden results, which were not brilliant – continuing revenue up +6% to R26.6bn, but operating profit flat at R1.3bn. For this, they say, we should look to weak local demand due to a “lackustre” trading environment, particularly in the consumer packaged goods and healthcare sectors. On the upside, though, things looked better beyond our borders, where revenue grew +10% to R18.8bn and operating profit grew +5% to R867m. Africa accounted for much of this, with 54% of Group revenue and 70% of operating profits. Over to you, new CEO Mohammed Akoojee: “The outlook for the Africa business, despite some challenges, is quite good. Multinationals are wanting to outsource more – they want to be in Africa, but don’t want in-country positions in those markets, and this is an opportunity for us.”

Comment: Well, that sounds promising. Thank you, sir.

Some interims for RCL FOODS, for the six months through December: sales up +3.5% to R13.3bn, but earnings per share – a reliable measure of profitability – were down -25%, as a result, they say, of oversupply in the sugar and chicken markets. For this, the usual suspects are to blame: dumped imports from Brazil and the US, where the chicken lobby wields powerful influence over trade policy and not so many years ago held the fate of AGOA in its plump and manicured hand. RCL are in talks with the government to address this issue. The government’s tax on sugar has also not helped the cause, with demand declining -10% in an already contested field. But there are green shoots: the Millbake business has shown “steady improvement”, polony is back to almost 80% of its pre-listeriosis levels of production, and Rainbow Chicken is on track for a similar recovery. Another plus is that with co-generation at its sugar plants, waste-to-value energy production and solar, its operations are now 25% self-sufficient in terms of energy and they’re aiming for 50%.

Comment: A great South African business which has made some excellent strategic decisions in the past few years, but has been plagued by a rash of exogenous factors.

Juxtaposed with an inspiring photograph of a fiery sunset over some sort of fossil-fuel refinery or perhaps electricity generation plant, the banner headline on the StatsSA website reads “The South African Economy grew by 0.8% in 2018.” They were kind enough, however, to leave off the exclamation mark. This final tally was boosted, if you will, by growth of +1.4% in the final quarter, after a technical recession in the first two when the economy actually shrank, to the tune of -2.7% in the first quarter and -0.5% in the second. Third quarter growth was more promising, at +2.6%. Fourth quarter growth was driven by exports and household consumption, the latter increasing by +3.2%, while our own great sector, represented by the food and non-alcoholic beverages category, grew +2.7%.

Comment: Well, it’s something. But it’s not good enough, as three solid weeks of worrying interims from manufacturers and retailers alike bear out.

Buoyed by the success of its FreshX Checkers stores (catchy!), Shoprite is speeding up the conversion of a third of its existing stores to the promising new format, with its coffee shops and wine cellars, its wide-open spaces, handwritten signage, modern fittings and, presumably, more interesting beards. And speaking of modern fittings, Shoprite are seeking to expunge the legacy of the recent past with a scheme to buy back Oom Christo’s high-voting deferred shares. News of this boosted the share price, which indicates that punters may also be keen to turn a page in the Big Red Book.

In the UK, Marks & Spencer are asking investors to cough up and forego the dividend to fund a JV with online supermarket technology business Ocado, allowing M&S to offer a full online food delivery service for the first time. In the US, Whole Foods is dropping its (slightly) smaller format, underperforming ‘365’ brand, converting all current 365s to traditional Whole Foodses by the end of the year. And in Ireland, Dermott McConnell, who owns five Pick n Pays over here, is taking over a venerable family supermarket called JD Hunter’s.