51% of South Africans (calm down, this one’s a good number) live within five kays of a Clicks store, and within six of a Clicks pharmacy. Here’s another: Clicks states one in four medicines sold in South Africa come from a Clicks pharmacy. And one final number: of the 757 Clickses out there, 600 are outfitted with pharmacies. This is testament to Clicks’ relentless drive to pharmacy rollout, and the appeal of the offering itself, which provides professional advice, low dispensing fees, and comprehensive ranges of generics and OTC medicines. The pharmacy business is supported by wholesale operation UPD, an inspired purchase back in 2003, by delivery outfit Clicks Direct Medicines, enabling penetration into far-flung regions, and by the integration of prescription services on the Clicks app. And more is to come: CAPEX of R700m this FY will focus on the store and pharmacy network, and on retail and distribution infrastructure.

Comment: Pharmacy at Clicks is driven by a great strategy, and well-executed by a talented team. Nice one.

The National Consumer Commission (NCC) is investigating pretty much everyone for price gouging related to garlic and ginger, to which consumers are flocking in droves in this time of illness, as has been the case in the past. Garlic and ginger are known immune boosters, and consumer demand has caused a shortage of ginger at least. The NCC is alleging, however, that the prices being charged do not reflect the cost of these commodities to the many retailers in question. A wholesale kilo of ginger will cost you R200; the cost in store has averaged somewhere closer to R350. This caused an outcry on social media, which led the Commission to act. If shown to be guilty of gouging, each retailer could face a fine of up to R1 million.

Comment: The jury is still out and we’ll see what comes of it all. But one thing is certain – the South African punter is more than usually tetchy these days. Gouge her at your peril.

Last week we reported on the tens of thousands of small farmers still excluded from formal grocery supply chains. This week, Food Lover’s Market has announced that it will be joining the ranks of South African retailers seeking to address this, with the launch of its Seeds of Change Supplier Development Partnership to create opportunities for social enterprises to join the fresh produce retailer's network as a supplier. Food Lover’s is seeking socially and environmentally focused businesses to join the network and is inviting online applications to this end. The successful 20 businesses will attend a workshop introducing them to the retail experience and some aspects of what is required of a supplier, an even more successful ten will attend a business bootcamp, and – here’s the rub – one enterprise will be chosen as a supplier to the business.

Comment: Social enterprises are a small but critical piece in South Africa’s socioeconomic puzzle. Initiatives like this are great at highlighting their potential, although we would like to see more actually engaged as suppliers.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the global pandemic has been online retail, exemplified here by UK outfit Ocado, which saw a +33.5% leap in group revenue to £2.35bn for 2020, with expected earnings of £123.8m. Its retail arm – a JV with Marks & Spencer – grew sales almost +35% in the 13 weeks through November. It will be opening three warehouses this year, to increase capacity by +40%. Tesco, Morrisons and Asda, in the meantime, are joining other businesses in petitioning the Chancellor of the Exchequer to impose an online sales tax on digital retailers like Amazon, in part to ease the burden somehow on bricks and mortar retailers which have been forced to close stores during lockdown. Across the pond, Walmart, in its efforts to build an online platform to rival Amazon, has acquired the IP and assets of Paper G, a company that harnesses data to deliver personalised digital advertising to individuals.

Comment: What have we learnt today people? Online is the threat and the opportunity. Go for it.

McCain Foods, with whose iconic oven chips you are doubtless familiar, is a business which doesn’t splash itself about much in the press and has not often been featured in these pages. Let’s change that: news this week is that Unathi Mhlatyana, ex-of PepsiCo and SAB/AB InBev, has been appointed as MD, replacing Rob Stevens, who has occupied the position since 2013. Not much has been said about whether the appointment will bring major changes in the business; we’re told only that Mr. Mhlatyana intends to drive a purpose-led business model with a sustainable profitability trajectory whilst leveraging the potential of the company’s resources to create strategies that deliver sustainable organic growth, and such. But this, from the man himself, is more promising: “When one considers the opportunities our continent offers, one can only be excited about the potential awaiting our industry.”

Comment: Africa, then. A journey we’d very much like to embark upon ourselves.

Big changes in the ownership of Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa, which is tripling the stake of its employee share ownership scheme to 15% which, with the sale of shares to other partners in an arrangement worth a total of R10bn, will see black empowerment ownership of the business increase to 20%. The identity of the new partners – and the value of their stake – has not yet been revealed. As part of the deal, CCBSA will make two seats available on the board for representatives of the workforce. In other CCBSA news, it is making R240m available over three years towards establishing a localisation platform to support the dear old South African economy. And finally, it has committed to procuring more of its substantial sugar intake from black farmers.

Comment: Some solid and meaningful stuff from the Big Feller. Nice work.

The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group (PMBEJD) is a tiny outfit that does sterling and critical work in unpicking the inequalities of the South African economy and what they mean for real people. Its chief instrument for this is the Household Affordability Index, the latest publication of which makes for tragic reading: the cost of the food basket of 44 prioritised food items has increased by +1.2% (R49) since December 2020, and a steeper +5.1% or almost R200 since the index was restructured in September 2020. The value of the basket at around R4,000, is already R500 higher than a family with a single minimum wage earner can afford. But consider that 30.4 million people, or 55.5% of South Africans, live below the upper-bound poverty line of R1,268 per month.

Comment: These are the numbers we should all have taped to our monitors, and which should drive everything we do as businesses and as a country.