Not the results Dis-Chem was hoping for, nor its punters, either, with the share price dropping 5% on the news that the five-month strike had eaten into profits to the tune of R76.5m on the back of increased security and legal costs. Retail revenue was up +9.76% to R19.6bn and total revenue +10% to R21.4bn from a stable of 149 stores, however, with operating profit up a still-tidy +8.2% to R1.2bn. “We believe these gains are driven by our everyday low-price strategy, coupled with aggressive promotional activity, our trusted in-store service, the availability of choice and our continued focus on private label and exclusive brands,” said CEO and founder Ivan Saltzman, who also grumbled somewhat about NUPSAW’s ‘unreasonable’ demands for an increase in the minimum wage. Analysts also attributed the slightly off results to a competitive pricing market across health and wellness, as Clicks and other formal retailers expand and become more proficient in the pharmacy / health & wellness category.

Comment: Not bad considering. An accommodation with labour might not be a bad thing going forward though.

We see your Lego knock offs, Shoprite, and raise you a Faf du Plessis. It’s collectibles season again, and Pick n Pay, mindful of the success of their Stikeez and Super Animals, are bringing in Cricket Super Cards. It’s all pretty straightforward: any shopper spending R150 until 7 July 2019 will receive a pack of two Super Cards. Over the next seven weeks, shoppers will have the chance to collect 60 cards ranging from Proteas men and women cards to local stadium and jersey cards. The fun part is they come with a free app that brings them to life in 3D and allows punters to play games and advance through the rankings. And proceeds from the sales of a R20 album will go to Cricket SA’s grassroots HUBS, a programme that builds regional performance centres in previously disadvantaged communities.

Comment: That’s a win/win then. With another win thrown in. Or maybe two.

Heading out the door, and – reading between the lines – without his performance bonus this week is Mr Ramachandran Ottapathu, now ex-CEO of Choppies, which keeps its most recent financial statements in the same place Donald Trump keeps his tax returns. This after a board meeting at which it was resolved to suspend him from his duties amid legal and forensic investigations the business announced in early March. He has been replaced by deputy chair of the board, Farouk Ismail, in a capacity both interim and acting, and Redford Capital has been appointed as chief restructuring officer of the outfit. As you may recall, Choppies was suspended from both the JSE and the Botswana stock exchanges after having failed to release their financials last June. It is anticipated that the forensic investigation will be wrapped up by the end of June 2019.

Comment: A full account of what happened at Choppies will make for interesting, if no doubt unfortunate, reading.

In the US, Lidl is dipping a belated toe in the waters of online retail, trailing a delivery service in partnership with online retailer Boxed, in two locations – Staten Island, New York, and powder Springs, Georgia. Punters living close to those locations will be able to order from the entire Lidl range online, then have it delivered within three hours. In Spain, the German discounter is doing something similar with online food platform Lola Market, although fresh food is only available for delivery to punters in Madrid right now. In the UK, where everything is upside down at the moment, Tesco CEO Dave Lewis got a £1.6m bonus, just months after announcing that jobs could be cut in order to trim expenses. In the US, in the meantime, Walmart has taken on Amazon with a simple but effective online strategy of its own. First, it acquired the heck out of a tidy little stable of existing online retailers. Then it leveraged its own stores, using them as DCs for the online business.

Comment: Natty.

A muted set of numbers from Pioneers Foods for the six months through March. While revenue was up +11.5% to R11bn, driven thither by strong performances in key categories, including bread, wheat, rice, beverages, cereals in the UK and, erm, sausage rolls in Nigeria, headline earnings were down -15% to R506m. Downsides included increases in the fuel price with knock-ons throughout the supply chain, and volume declines in maize and cereals which “constrained further revenue growth” according to Pioneer. The business also made investments in future growth capacity, which pushed operating costs northward a touch. It did manage to grow market share during what has been a challenging period for everyone. 

Comment: Investing in future growth is a bold but sensible move in this tricky ambit.

Astral Foods saw revenue rise +3% to R6.8bn, but operating profit fell -68.9% to R258m on the back of higher sales and distribution costs. And they weren’t helped either by ongoing imports of cheap poultry, which they say amount to around 38% of the local market. Profits have been hit by increases and volatility in the price of maize, a situation unlikely to improve anytime soon, particularly as the new minimum wage comes into effect. The upside is that Astral remains the biggest chicken producer on the JSE, and might be looking to grow by acquisition in the near future, with struggling smaller producer Daybreak Farms a possible target. This would give the combined businesses around 33% of the local broiler market.

Comment: Chicken production, if you’ll forgive us, is for the birds. Someone’s got to do it though, and Astral seems to have a plan.

As Moody’s warns our newly-secure President that it will downgrade South Africa’s debt status to junk unless he does not deliver on promised reforms, investment bank Goldman Sachs announced that it would increase its presence in the Beloved Country on the back of the ANC’s convincing 58% win in the recent elections, and the rand climbed 4% against the pound. Retail sales for the month of March were muted rising just +0.2% YoY as consumers continue to tighten their belts, with food and beverage and pharmacy sales hit worst. This suggests poor growth for the economy generally, making it harder to achieve the +1.5% we had hoped for this year. And +1.5%, at a time of record unemployment and the worst economic inequality in the world, is the rate at which our population is growing.

Comment: Harder times than we have known. Our President is going to need all the goodwill that he can get.