“Performance matters and points count”, were some of the closing words by PnP CEO Mr Richard Brasher, commenting not only on what we hope to see on the rugby field come Sunday, but also on the Group’s interims to 1 September just gone by. The numbers were strong – turnover +6%, gross profit margin increasing a full percentage point to 19.8% and just about 2.5 stores opened every week, bringing the total to 1,858 stores. The only speck in the eye seemed to be business in Zambia and Zim, the latter experiencing hyperinflation right now and the former… well you know… the usual mix of forex losses and complex trading conditions. As for new CFO Lerena Olivier? Well she did a smashing job delivering her maiden results, explaining the ‘ins and outs’ of IFRS and various accounting complexities in terms that even our copywriter could understand. For our snappy summary of the figures, click here

Comment: Formidable stuff in a tough environment. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the FY brings.

Checkers have finally dipped their toe in the brimming ocean that is customer loyalty, with the launch of its first loyalty programme, Checkers Xtra Savings, eight years after Pick n Pay unveiled their Smart Shopper Card and 20+ years after Clicks first introduced the ClubCard to a mystified South Africa. Typically for Checkers, it’s a simple but compelling offering: cardholders are eligible for discounts on over 1,000 items every month, with the savings reflected directly on their till slip – no points, no tiers, no levels. The move was made possible – or at least easier – by the re-platforming of over 2,000 stores in 15 countries in their recent IT system overhaul. “It aimed to ensure we remain globally competitive and become a more customer-centric business,” a company spokesperson said.

Comment: If we know anything about Shoprite – and we do – the programme will very shortly be cooking on gas, and providing the business with another buffer against the hard times in which we find ourselves.

An unpleasant dispute between SPAR and one of its retail members – the Giannacoupolous Group, which owns 22 SPAR stores and 21 TOPS bottle stores – resulted last week in the closure by SPAR of these stores. It was intended that SPAR would take over their running, until the High Court upheld an appeal by the Giannacopoulos Group and ordered that the stores be returned to their control. SPAR alleges that the franchisee in question was “competing with businesses of retail members and bringing the SPAR brand into disrepute”, in part through unfair labour practices. In other (and better) SPAR news, 4.5% of a store’s sales now come from their store-within-a-store SPAR Natural concept, launched last year as a healthier, organic range for SPAR shoppers. The range includes such products as healthy snacks; grocery products like grains and pasta; coffee and tea, and confectionery.

Comment: A very sharp move by SPAR at a time when the market for this sort of line is really starting to mature.

Woolworths just walked straight into yet another PR brouhaha by selling a cheerful Country Road tote bag, designed in Australia, in this season’s hot colours: Azure Blue, Marshmallow, Orange, Baby Blue and Navy. Also known as orange, white and blue, or, the colours of the Old South African flag, deemed last month by the Equality Court to constitute “hate speech, harassment and an expression of white superiority.” Woolies, having had its attention drawn to the mistake by a Reddit user, pulled the bag off the shelves, and issued an apology, but not before a furore had erupted across social media. In other Woolies news, the Dapper One’s scruffier Aussie cousin David Jones has opened its first standalone gourmet food store in Melbourne's hipster haven, Chapel Street. It’s about a tenth the size of a decent super, and sells around 2,000 lines, 60% of them under the David Jones label.

Comment: Bad luck on the bag Woolies. An honest mistake, but one loaded with understandable anger.

Posh UK retailer Marks & Spencer has launched a new concept store to get back some of the growth it’s been shedding these past how many years? The store, situated in Clapham in London, apparently looks more like a Whole Foods, boasting avos and herbs grown with the help of artificial intelligence, some kind of a mirror ball pizza oven, and nary a sign of the clothing, which has been dragging the brand down of late. Nice one. And OK, strictly speaking they are an international retailer but we’ve been treating them like a local one since first they came to our attention: Choppies, in confirmation of the rumour we were touting in these pages a couple of months back, are indeed closing their 88 South African stores, and are actively looking for a buyer for their local assets. They have apparently received offers. They’ve also closed three of their Kenyan stores.

Comment: A pity. We admired their pluck and welcomed a competitor for our big six, to liven the local retail scene up a bit.

In fighting the class action brought against it by Richard Spoor Attorneys for victims of 2018’s listeriosis outbreak, Tiger Brands is denying that the tragedy was caused by contaminated products from its Polokwane factory. Spoor argues that the business “failed to take reasonable measures to ensure good hygiene at the Polokwane facility and in particular failed to take effective measures to control or eliminate … contamination.” In the meantime, listeriosis continues to threaten the health and lives of those with compromised immune systems, including new-born children and the elderly – 87 cases have been confirmed by labs over the last year, which is apparently about the average, and does not constitute an outbreak, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Comment: It may turn out that an earlier settlement might be better for Tiger reputationally and materially than a fight that goes all the way to the Constitutional Court. Certainly, it would be better for the victims.

So who, exactly, is this PepsiCo which may be taking Pioneer Foods off the hands of Zeder Investments? A pretty big business as it turns out, whose products are enjoyed by people at the rate of one billion times every day, and which produces such familiar (and in some cases market-leading) brands as Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, and Tropicana, as well, of course, as Pepsi itself, which in some locations and geographies is the only cola on offer. The business generated a handsome $64bn in net revenue last year. The all-cash offer has now been approved by 100% of the boards of both businesses, and as of last week by the overwhelming majority of Pioneer shareholders, and is now likely to go ahead subject to various closing conditions including approval by the appropriate authorities.

Comment: Given the diversity of PepsiCo’s offering and the complementarity offered by Pioneer’s portfolio, we don’t foresee a huge issue down at the Old Competition Commission.

There’s a breathless hush over the fiscus this week, with a number of balls in the air that depending on whether or not they fall, could mean the start of something new or no end to the difficult economic ambit in which we find ourselves. And then to stretch the metaphor a bit, the juggler doesn’t know when Eskom’s going to switch the lights off. First up: the announcement about the restructuring of Eskom and the finance minister's medium-term budget, which some commentators are going so far as to suggest might herald a new economic dawn. Then interests rates: is the dear old SARB going to go dovish on us in the hopes of getting out the consumer spending? And Moody’s: hold or fold? The prevailing wisdom is that it will be the former rather than a further downgrade, which will give us some breathing space. And finally, Wales. Do our boys in green and gold have what it takes to send them back to their rainy valleys and slag heaps?

Comment: Difficult times – when were they not? – but with our current uncertainty comes hope of a gruelling climb back to economic viability.