A grab-bag of goodies (and indeed baddies) from Shoprite this week. First up, the Big Red One has been fined a cool million for reckless lending, pertaining specifically to the cases of nine punters who, the High Court has determined, were clearly dicey credit prospects. Shoprite has also been ordered to provide debt counselling to similarly burdened customers. The nine in the meantime have settled their debt. Next, Oom Christo Wiese has flogged another 18.9 million of his shares for R2.5bn. That’s approximately 4,000 suitcases full of cash in a Business Class carry-on to London. Finally, Checkers reports that it is seeing an increase in demand for vegan and plant-based alternatives, with growing sales of the 90 vegan products in its wildly successful Simple Truth range and its exclusive Linda McCartney Foods line.

Comment: We can assume that if Shoprite are making a buck from it, it’s something of a big deal. That’s good news when it comes to plant-based dietary alternatives, essential as we make the necessary move towards a lower-carbon food economy.

Analysts – ourselves included – are rightly concerned about the impact of the coming closure of all 23 DionWired, and 11 Masscash stores on Massmart’s workforce – 1,440 jobs are likely to be lost. There is another group that could be affected though – better heeled, perhaps, but no less embattled. This would be the owners of South Arica’s shopping malls. Last year, you will recall, Edcon closed 150 stores; as the current economy puts the retail sector under further pressure, more retailers could be looking to downscale with the closure of underperforming locations, which is bad news for property owners. DionWired has suffered badly from the rise of online retail, which sees shoppers trying products in store before buying them more cheaply from sites like Takealot. A more rapidly executed omni-channel strategy and an earlier trimming of floor space may have saved the brand, say experts. The only people happy with the move, it seems, are shareholders, who rewarded Massmart with a 5% hike on the news.

Comment: In an environment like this, the travails of Massmart are unsurprising, and will no doubt give other retailers pause for reflection.

On the news last week of the resignation of Ian Moir as CEO of Woolies, the share price climbed a whopping 9.6%, reflecting the relief of punters who have had enough of the Dapper One’s Antipodean adventures, and their excitement about the new regime under Roy Bagattini, who has managed Levi Strauss’ largest operation, with stores in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Latin America, and played a major role in the development and acceleration of the e-commerce and omni-channel capabilities of that iconic brand. They might also be looking forward to shedding some of that dead Australian wood: while Mr Moir has been dispatched Down Under to turn David Jones around, the possibility is that new board chair Hubert Brody (not to mention new non-exec David Kneale) might take a more dispassionate look at the benefits of staying invested in that blasted territory. On the other hand, Mr Bagattini’s turnaround experience might suggest one last spin of the wheel.

Comment: In our current economic model, the share price is the only virtue. Despite his early successes with the business, Mr Moir has been measured against that, and found wanting.

We mentioned some time ago that Tesco was eager to unload its Asian assets; it may have found a buyer in Thailand. Big C Supercenter operates 1,200-something stores in 60 of Thailand’s 76 provinces, and Tesco has locations where Big C doesn’t, so a tempting prospect. A couple of other bidders are interested, but the deal may fall afoul of Thai competition authorities: Tesco has over 200 stores in Thailand and Malaysia, so any deal would result in the creation of a retail behemoth. In the Netherlands, meanwhile, where they know a thing or two about the likely impacts of climate change, Lidl has opened its first net zero emissions store, operating on a solar system which provides for 100% of its power requirements. Lidl has photovoltaic projects in 10 European countries and counting. In the UK, Lidl is readying itself to launch online, starting with wine, spirits, and non-food items.

Comment: The bitter struggle between Aldi and Lidl is yielding some interesting innovations.

The good news: AB InBev have issued a decree that all of their divisions should source half of their power from renewable sources by the end of the year, and all of it by 2025. Even better, is that globally, they’ve reached the first goal. The bad news is that local subsidiary SABMiller are only just getting started, with an agreement signed with local outfit Sola to equip the local breweries with 23,000 solar panels that will meet 10%-15% of their electricity needs once installed. But to get to 50%, say SAB, they need an agreement with Eskom, energy regulators and government on a regulatory framework that will allow them to generate renewable energy off-site and wheel it through Eskom's grid to breweries across the country. Unfortunately, despite Eskom being unable to supply business with its needs – either renewable or non – Mineral & Energy Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe is moving at glacial speed on approving such deals. And unrelated, but fun fact: SAB alumni seem to be riding to the rescue at troubled South African businesses these days, with Roy Baggatini (Woolies), Trevor Hudson (Tongaat Hulett) and Richard Rushton (Distell) all pulling in to do their bit.

Comment: Come on Gwede. Power to the People. Don’t make us send the retired SAB execs over there.

Nothing much happening on the domestic front this week, so a random roundup of international suppliers for you. First up, Colgate Palmolive, who have come up with vegan toothpaste in a 100% recyclable tube because right now, you and I are contributing monthly to the 20-billion-odd plastic and aluminium tubes that swell the landfills every year. Smile for Good will be packaged in high density polyethylene (HDPE) the same stuff as milk containers. Nice segue into dairy right here: Coke has acquired the remaining shares of Fairlife of Chicago, a business it previously owned in partnership with Select Milk Producers. Fairlife has grown substantially in the past little while, bringing in innovative products including high-protein recovery and nutrition drinks and drinkable snacks, and has benefited from Coke’s Minute Maid distribution system. And finally, to Nestlé, who have announced that they will be cutting their use of virgin plastics and aiming at 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by the (increasingly magical) year of 2025.

Comment: Big news all around. Well done those multinationals.

Retail trade sales numbers for November were out last week, and not a bad little haul, all things considered – up +2.6%, their biggest jump since the heady days of April 2019 when they leapt +2.7% year-on-year. Retailers in food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores, general dealers and retailers in household furniture, appliances and equipment, textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods recorded the largest annual growth rates, according to the hoary sages over at StatsSA, who have suggested that Black Friday played a role in this jamboree of spending. On the downside, retailers specialising in pharmaceuticals, medical goods and cosmetics saw sales drop by -1.9%. Another bit of good news is that the dear old Reserve Bank has done the decent thing and dropped the repo rate by 25 basis points, suggesting that another cut may come in the fourth quarter, and providing a modicum of relief to the indebted, those who wish to lend money or extend credit for goods and services, and those seeking to buy homes.

Comment: We’ll take any positive indicators we can get at this point.