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That SPAR trading update for the 48 weeks through August: Group sales grew +12.4% to R112.04bn, but sales here at home – in the SPAR Southern Africa region – were more muted, up just +4.8% in the face of our lockdown and the liquor ban: sales at TOPS were down -16.4%, and Build It -3.5%. Sales out of wholesale performed better, growing revenue +8.7%. Ireland trundled along, growing +5.5%, while both the convenience and the cash & carry business in Switzerland seem to be gathering steam, growing by a combined and considerable +11.4%.

Comment: From a successful retailer with exposure across a wide range of formats and markets, this update is something of a bellwether for this difficult age.

We don’t generally have much truck with the garment industry, because that’s just not who we are. But the rag trade is hard to ignore in the case of Woolworths, where the fortunes of the grocery and food business are more inextricably bound up with apparel and homeware. And it seems that new guy, Roy Bagattini, is taking the turnaround of clothing seriously, where he believes the business has lost focus as it tries to be all things to everyone. “Instead of going sharp and focused and editing or amplifying, we go wide and thin,” he explains, “and as a consequence there’s a lot of inefficiencies and that’s had a big impact on margin performance.” He and new hire Manie Maritz, who is credited with the turnaround at Markham, are working closely on a strategy to fix fashion.

Comment: A Woolies where fashion is firing will be a business to watch.

The Shoprite Group has always been something of a first mover when it comes to non-retail services, pioneering cash transfers and the sales of Def Leppard tickets, to mention just two such initiatives. So it should come as no surprise, then that the first retailer to offer pet insurance is Shoprite’s very own Checkers. The product is underwritten by OUTsurance, which also partnered with the Group earlier this year when it became the first supermarket retailer to offer an OUTbonus on funeral policies. And speaking of innovation, Shoprite also became the first retailer to offer QR payments, a significant step in the drive to touchless retail. Rival Pick n Pay, in the meantime, have entered an arrangement with the Daily Maverick, South Africa’s primary purveyor of online long-form journalism, which will now be distributing its paper version exclusively through Pick n Pay stores, at least for the moment.

Comment: The evolution of SA’s retailers into full-service lifestyle emporia is a story that continues to excite.

While the success of Walmart has been one of the bright spots in the US’s handling of the pandemic, things are not always so rosy for their minimum-wage staff, some of whom have had their hours and pay cut even as their workload increases. This as the Big Feller sees store sales grow +9.3% for the month of August and online a whopping +97%. Globally, Sir David Attenborough has said that the one thing he wishes we’d all do is reduce waste in our lives as consumers: in the UK, Tesco CEO Dave Lewis has called on companies to report on food waste in their business and supply chain and to take steps to meet the UN’s sustainable development goal to halve food waste by 2030. A number of retailers and suppliers, including Kellogg, Unilever, Nestlé, Kroger, Walmart and Metro have committed to achieving the target.

Comment: A business that is not sustainable is a business that is not truly profitable. Nice work Mr Lewis.

In what would no doubt have been a big relief for the embattled and recently disgraced sugar giant, an independent adjudicator has found that the R5.35bn sale of Tongaat Hulett’s starch business to Barloworld should go ahead as there has been no material impact on the business due to COVID-19. Barloworld had argued that the pandemic would in all likelihood have caused a material adverse change (MAC) event which would bring Ebitda down -82.5% or less for the financial year to end March 2021 in comparison with the previous year. The sale of the unit will help Tongaat Hulett meet its debt-reduction targets and keep the momentum of its turnaround after last year’s accounting scandal. The plan is to reduce its R13bn debt by R8.1bn by March 2021, and to that end the business has been assiduously selling off assets, like Tambankulu Estates, which it flogged to eSwatini’s Public Service Pensions Fund for R375m.

Comment: When the scandal broke, few would have predicted the determination of Tongaat Hulett’s turnaround effort.

Founded in 2008 by a group of university students, Thankyou is a social enterprise that ploughs its profits into philanthropic work. To date, the business has raised AUD$17m for impact partners serving the world’s poorest populations in the areas of water, health, sanitation, economic development programmes, maternal and child health programmes in low-income communities. Thankyou currently only sells consumer products in the personal and baby care categories in two markets, New Zealand and Australia, but aspires to extend its reach globally. So it’s running a campaign to get other businesses to manufacture and market its goods under licence. Targeted by the “No Small Plan” campaign are global giants Unilever and P&G, both of whom have been invited to a Zoom meeting at the end of the campaign to discuss the way forward. The businesses are being put under pressure to meet the challenge and accept the invitation through a major social media campaign.

Comment: To find out how to get these legendary businesses onboard with this innovative and big-hearted #ThankyouToTheWorld initiative, click here or read more.

After a couple of delays, Stats SA released the second quarter jobs report earlier this week, showing that unemployment decreased to 23.3% from 30.1% in Q1. “Wherefore,” we hear you cry. Well, it all comes down to semantics. Let’s hand over to the bearded worthies at Stats SA for some elucidation: “This sharp fall in the unemployment rate in quarter 2 is not a reflection of an improvement in the labour market but rather an effect of the national lockdown, since the official definition of unemployment requires that people look for work and are available for work.” Ah, so a more realistic number to look at then is expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people no longer looking for work, the rate of which stands at an alarming 42%. In total, the number of people employed formally in the South African economy decreased by 2.2 million since quarter 1, and one in five of the employed had a reduction in their pay/salary during the lockdown. But it doesn’t end there… 25.9% of respondents indicated that they thought they might lose their jobs or close their business due to COVID-19 in the four weeks succeeding the survey interview. In better news (nice try. Ed), the dear old South African Reserve Bank says that its composite business cycle indicator for the month of July suggests that we are on the road to recovery – although it does not provide details of the likely timing or scale.

Comment: The unemployment numbers, however, provide a stark reminder that a return to the pre-COVID status quo is not really a recovery in any meaningful sense.