Hot on the heels of SPAR’s trading update last week comes one from Shoprite, for the six months through to 27 December 2020. Sales for the period were up +4.7% to approximately R83.4bn, dragged thither by a decline in sales of -21.8% in the LiquorShop division. Excluding these latter numbers, South African supermarkets, which contributed 78% to Group sales, grew turnover +7.8%. Checkers, fast becoming the jewel in the Shoprite crown, absolutely shot the lights out at +11.1%, with Shoprite and Usave growing +5.6%, reflecting the difficulties for lower to middle income South Africans. The rest of the local business, including OK Franchise, Transpharm, MediRite Pharmacies, Checkers Food Services and Computicket, grew sales +10.0%, and 45 South African supermarkets were added for the period.

Comment: A good set of numbers, all things considered.

Massmart intends to close another 14 stores under the Browns & Weirs and Jumbo brands in its Masscash division, after the sale of eight last year to Devland (with another three possibly to come), all as part of its turnaround strategy. At the end of the 2019 financial year, the business had 130 Masscash stores, which contributed around a third of the Group’s R93.7bn in sales but generated a trading loss of R385.4m. Massmart also joined the stampede of trading updates last week: Group sales were -7.7% lower for the year through 27 December, at R86.5bn, although it anticipates that trading profit will be 3 to 8% up on last year. Net loss, though, different story: Massmart is anticipating it to widen by as much as 36% from R1.3bn in 2019, because of write-downs of R798m, including to its Cambridge Food and Fruitspot businesses. The turnaround plan remains in full swing, however, with a three-year cost saving target of R1.9bn.

Comment: Heckuva time for a turnaround strategy. This will be feather in Mitch Slape’s cap if he pulls it off.

And the trading updates rage on untrammelled. Next up Dis-Chem, which increased its Group revenue +12.1% to R11.6bn for the 22 weeks to 2 February 2021, on the back of growing consumer demand for preventative medicine. Retail revenue was up +10.3%, with like-store sales growing +5.1%. New arrival Baby City contributed R73.4m to the total from the beginning of the year, and online sales positively soared, with an increase of +218.7% YoY. Like rival Clicks, wholesale was also a crowd pleaser, up +20% to its customers like private hospitals and independent pharmacies. New stores, of which ten were added, contributed R123m to revenue for the period. “The change in consumer shopping behaviour due to COVID-19 continued to impact our sales mix and in turn, our margins,” says CEO Ivan Saltzman. “Despite the strong top-line growth, margins are still lagging pre-COVID-19 levels.”

Comment: Even businesses like Dis-chem, with a compelling product offering and innovative delivery systems in place, are not immune to the impacts of the current pandemic.

Someone doing OK at a time when others most emphatically are not is Carrefour, which has just posted its best sales in 20 years, with total sales up +6.3% YoY to €17.7bn, and sales at its Coop brand up +14.3% to €11.1bn. Profit was stable at close to €500m. In the US, Walmart’s also doing just fine, thanks for asking, raking in a record US$559bn for the 2020 FY, up US$35bn YoY. It has adjusted its sales growth forecasts quite dramatically downward for 2021. In India, where regrettably we at the Tatler do not often venture, the Tata Group has made a successful offer to purchase a 60% stake in grocery delivery startup BigBasket, for something in the order of US$2bn. Chinese online outfit AliBaba currently owns 30% of the business but is making its exit in the face of unfriendly legislation.

Comment: Want to make a buck? Be a barnstorming young grocery-delivery start-up is our advice.

Jeez enough with the trading updates already. Well OK Tiger, but you’re the last. Revenue from continuing operations up +9.4% for the four months through January. This happy result was made possible by strong sales across the categories, including maize, oat-based breakfast products, rice, snacks and treats, and beverages as well as home care, personal care and baby goods. Bakery products, Ace porridge, and sorghum-based breakfast offerings declined in volume. Better news, for the punters at least, is that they expect HEPS to climb as much as +20% in the six months through March this year, after their -23% decline in the financial year through September last year. Tiger also let it be known that it had entered into a due diligence process for the sale of its deciduous fruit canned fruits business, after receiving several offers for the purchase of the outfit.

Comment: Busy times over at the Striped One, proving there is a buck to be made and a division to be disposed of even in these difficult times.

The Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) has asked Tito Mboweni to announce a doubling of the sugar tax in his budget this week. Officially known as the Health Promotion Levy, the tax currently adds around 11% to the price of sugary beverages – at 2.21 cents per gram for anything over four grams, that adds about 46 cents to the price of a can of the good stuff, while funnelling over R2.5bn a year into the government’s coffers. Still not enough for the worthies over at HEALA, apparently. “In the long-term, we know that a health promotion levy of 20% will reduce the amount of sugar people eat, decreasing their chance of developing conditions such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure that also put people at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19,” says HEALA head Lawrence Mbalati.

Comment: A new recipe and a new business model might be timely in the sugar-heavy neighbourhoods of this great industry we call home. You know who you are.

All is not truly as awful with the economy as it might be. Well, OK, it is, but may not necessarily remain thus, according to a handful of economists, who believe that we should record GDP growth of as much as +4.5% this year, albeit off a base of -7%. And of course, unless Eskom go and do something stupid like hike our rates 15%… What’s that? Oh hell no. Which apparently, they fully intend doing, with the blessing of the High Court of the land. Anyway, the bulls among the dismal scientists assure us that businesses whose inventory plummeted during 2020 will be forced to restock, setting in motion a virtuous economic cycle. And the global economy – this one is kind of back handed – and capital inflows should also buoy us somewhat as vaccine regimes kick in among the world’s wealthier nations. Yay, or something. And if the energy reform takes off, well, the sky is, if not exactly the limit, then at least visible.

Comment: Here in the Beloved Country, all is never quite lost.