Slow news week after the thrills of Black Friday, so first up: Woolies has let it be known via social media (see more here) that it will soon be launching a same-day “within the hour” delivery service, which will rejoice under the racy title of Woolies Dash, with the payoff “Fast. Fresh. Today”. And very cleverly, it has incorporated that little drawing pin icon from Google maps into their design. Pick n Pay and Checkers have both recently launched similar offerings, PnP through its acquisition of the Bottles business and Checkers with its Sixty60 app. Other news from Woolies CEO Roy Bagattini, is that the business will shortly be exploring more convenience formats and developing its own beauty brands. They are also apparently looking at what they might pick up from the sale, in pieces, of the late great Edcon empire. And all of this on top of the R1bn investment in prices over the next couple of years.

Comment: Stirrings and rumblings over at the Dapper One. It seems that a strategy is taking shape across the whole business – be good to see it all tied together sometime soon.

Food Lover’s has let it be known in a trading update that according to Nielsen, they have increased (sales of? we’re assuming) groceries and perishables by +37% for the year and +44% for the six months just gone. Butchery (+22%), bakery (+23%), and fresh produce (+26%) showed similarly pleasing growth over the same period. Nielsen also reported that the business was “ahead of its competitors” with a +24% increase in trading – all of this based on a defined basket of categories, excluding liquor. According to Nielsen, competitive businesses showed an average growth (in “trading”, presumably) of +8% for the period. How has it achieved all of this? “We knew that the negative impact (of the pandemic) on consumer confidence and the household budget would see consumers placing a high premium on the three key areas of hygiene, value and variety,” says CEO Brian Coppin. “Fortunately, we were able to hit it out of the park as we were already geared to deliver on all of these expectations.”

Comment: We prefer to measure a business by its growth in turnover, operating profit, margin and market share. But these numbers, whatever they are, look solid.

Ocado has become one of the (few) winners of the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, running a scary-fast delivery service directly from its DC rather than out of actual or “dark” stores like Tesco or M&S, with picking performed by a combo of human staff and cube-shaped robots, boasting an average pick time of seven seconds per item. The robots are controlled by an air-traffic control system and communicate with each other via 4G. Ocado’s Christmas delivery slots were all booked up within five hours of being released in October. Last year, you may recall, M&S bought 50% of its retail division, a delivery business operating in England and Wales. Ocado has licensed its technology to Casino in France, Sobeys in Canada and Kroger in the US, and the idea is that this aspect of the business will grow into a tech giant and the major player in what has been estimated at a £7.8tn global market.

Comment: We have seen the future, and it is battery-operated robot boxes.

Gird yourselves retailers: Astral Foods is looking to recover some of its COVID-related losses and cover its higher input costs, and is gearing itself for some “tough negotiations” (their words, not ours). This after revealing that operating profit declined -5% to R838m for the year through September, and will have to push through a +10% increase on its frozen chicken portions, a bitter pill for the current market to swallow, particularly where retailers use poultry as a loss leader to lure embattled punters in for the higher-ticket items. What’s up with those input prices? While maize enjoyed a bumper season this year, demand from China was high, putting pressure on prices for businesses like Astral. And the price of soybeans from Argentina and Brazil, is also increasing. If Astral doesn’t succeed in passing on an extra R2 or so to its retail customers, March’s interims are likely to be more of the same.

Comment: Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to be poultrymen.

Last week, we rather charitably neglected to inform you, the analysts were all a-gripe about how RCL FOODS CEO Miles Dally (full disclosure: great guy and a proper Durbanite) had failed to provide sufficient details about the business’ turnaround strategy at the recent AGM. After a slew of disappointing results, questions were raised about whether he was the right person to lead the business, which has diversified in recent years in an attempt to avoid the travails of each and every chicken producer in South Africa. This week, in partial response one assumes, RCL FOODS has revealed that it has succeeded in (ahem) “recruiting” three highly-regarded execs from Country Bird Holdings (CBH) to lead the turnaround strategy. Marthinus Stander (CEO), Fritz Grobbelaar (FD) and Wouter de Wet (business improvement director) will head up RCL’s new “chicken business unit”. In addition, Rand Merchant Bank will be conducting a strategic review of the underlying RCL portfolio, with a view to preserving the scale and efficiency benefits of the respective business units.

Comment: Sounds like our guy has got this…

Ratings agencies Moody’s and Fitch both downgraded our credit ratings last week, Moody’s to a Baa2 and Fitch to a BB-. The third agency, Standard & Poor’s, kept its assessment of our foreign-currency debt three levels below investment grade, with a stable outlook. Moody’s, to pick just one, reckon our economy will shrink by -6.5% for the annus horribilis that is 2020, and that it will recover to the tune of +4.5% next year. They further believe that the budget deficit will expand to 15.4% of GDP. What does this all mean? In a nutshell: higher borrowing costs for government, a downer for social programmes; lower rates of fixed investment, poorer economic growth and higher unemployment; a weaker rand and a higher cost for imports; and membership of an exclusive club that includes Brazil and Turkey, whose ratings are on a par with ours.

Comment: Sometimes, however painful this may be, you have to name it to fix it. This is fixable.