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Interims this week from Dis-Chem, with revenue up +8.1% to R12.8bn for the six months through August, and HEPS – generally considered a reliable measure of profitability – up +16%. Retail revenue grew +6% to R11.4bn, with strong performances in personal care, FMCG, and healthcare and nutrition. Online sales grew a whacking +353%. “This,” says CEO Ivan Saltzman, “is the result of significant investment in the online store’s processes and systems over the past five years, with the application of much behind-the-scenes work to boost operational efficiencies.” During the period, the business opened 23 stores, for a total of 182, and still intends to acquire Baby City – although that transaction is pending approval from the Comp Commish. Dis-Chem has signalled that it is on the acquisition trail, with an offer already in to a “primary healthcare asset” that specialises in insurance.

Comment: Vertical integration eh. Smart move.

File under obscure things of which we can be proud: the Shoprite Group’s Portfolio Management Office (PMO) has gained international recognition for its world-class project management skills as one of the top four finalists in the 2020 PMO Global Awards. Some of the ground-breaking projects managed by the Shoprite PMO include the roll-out (in under 18 months) of the Group’s Enterprise Resource Planning System across its operations in 15 countries and the highly successful launch of the Xtra Savings rewards programme. In July, the team won the 2020 PMO of the Year Award in Africa. The PMO team manages collaboration between all business units and the successful delivery, monitoring, and evaluation of projects. “This gives some recognition to our ability to innovate and adapt to challenges and changes in a rapidly moving retail sector,” says David Cohn, Group GM of IT.

Comment: A bit of global recognition is always nice, and in this case well-deserved.

Pick n Pay is betting big on small, if Chief Technology and Services Officer (CTSO) Richard van Rensburg is to be believed. It’s his view that intelligent digital sourcing and supply chain solutions could enable small retailers – including independents and spazas ‒ to bring a better offer, at a cheaper price, in a location already close to the homes of customers, giving them a competitive advantage over larger supermarket stores. “Small is the new big,” he says. “The fastest growing grocery retail format globally is the small neighbourhood convenience store. Even faster than online.” But how can they compete with the economies of scale available to bigger chains? “In the same way that an Airbnb or Uber business model disrupted the hotel and taxi industries,” argues the aptly named Mr VR, “so will intelligent sourcing, replenishment and gig-economy style logistics solutions radically reduce the cost of distributing small quantities of a wide range of products to multiple locations, frequently.”

Comment: We’re onboard for this. And so, it seems, is PnP, which has made several significant moves into neighbourhood convenience.

Not letting its left hand know what its right hand is doing this week is Aldi, which apparently runs sneaky red label discounts of up to 50% on food, for punters in the UK prepared to get to the stores as they open at 7am, when items that have hit their best before or use by dates go on sale. Across the Channel, Carrefour have partnered with tech business Mirakl to launch a food marketplace which makes products from more than a hundred retailers and artisans available online; 52% of these “partner vendors” are SMMEs and start-ups. And further afield, in the ironically-named United Sates of America, Walmart is ending a contract with Bossa Nova Robotics, which supplied shelf-scanning robots in 500 stores, after the retailer realised that the increased number of pickers fulfilling online orders could scan the shelves at the same time.

Comment: Also, robots don’t buy groceries.

As you may have heard, the Beloved Country now has strict new laws about what may be called coffee and what may not. It’s even got laws about what may be called a ‘chicory and coffee mixture’ – broadly, at least 50% of the overall blend must comprise chicory. And it turns out that beloved kitchen-shelf staple Ricoffy may call itself neither of these things, composed as it is of 25% coffee, 32.5% chicory, and most of the rest, dextrins. Big however, though: Nestlè have chosen to interpret the rules another way, arguing that the original mix, before dilution with dextrins, contains over 50% chicory. Nestlè are also apparently keeping the claim “SA’s No. 1 coffee brand” on the pack, insisting that the claim “is based on various independent market data, which by the way track performances of brands that are categorised under the broad categorization of coffee”.

Comment: Say what you like, it’s still a killer with a spot of condensed milk outside your tent on a cold winter’s morning in the High Berg.

We’re going to have a stab at this, but it involves Blockchain, so we might get it a bit wrong. Here goes: BeefLedger SA (based on a successful Australian model of the same name) provides a blockchain-enabled traceability solution for the South African beef supply chain. Blockchain, as you know, enables the sharing of recorded transactions in a digitised, decentralised data log that is stored on a network of computers rather than on a single database. The credentialed traceability system will provide users in the beef industry with the value-added benefits of access to credible and authentic data, sales history, consumer feedback insights, streamlined payments, and heightened food security. The system will also apparently contribute towards better disease prevention and more effective biosecurity management processes. Beefledger, says CEO Anzill Adams “offers the industry a digital livestock identification and traceability system that can validate real-time ‘farm to fork’ product authenticity.” He also points to the benefit that the system offers smaller farmers in bringing their product to a market characterised by greater scrutiny.

Comment: Good stuff. We’d spend our Bitcoin on some of that.

Interesting numbers this week from FNB, who reports that for the month of April, according to its records, spending by its customers plummeted by -60% on our base and incomes were down -26%. However, the recovery began sharply, in May; by the end of June spending was only -20% down, and by July, both figures had pretty much recovered. By the end of September, the numbers were down by only -3% on their January levels. Interestingly, people earning over R1.5m a year were impacted as heavily as FNB’s poorest punters – largely because the majority of South Africa’s wealthy are business owners. On the upside, people have been saving furiously over the pandemic, with FNB reporting growth of R20bn in consumer deposits over the period.

Comment: Some numbers to back up the anecdotal evidence that we’re more resilient than we thought.