Shoprite: is it a grocer? A bank? A would-be supplier of clean energy to the national grid? A property behemoth? All of the above, of course, and much more, but to this haul can now be added an angel investor. To grow commercially viable SMMEs and give small suppliers greater access to its market, Shoprite has launched a new division, Shoprite Next Capital, which will operate as a one-stop shop for SMME partners by providing marketing opportunities, working capital assistance, packaging and labelling support, data sharing, product range and geographic expansion, as well as possible private label partnerships. “This new division will provide SMMEs with easier entry into the Group’s retail market with direct access to buyers that understand their needs combined with personalised growth plans that will assist suppliers to scale up gradually,” says GM for enterprise and supplier development Maude Modise. “The Group has always partnered with small suppliers, but now we are giving them additional focus and allocating dedicated buyers, essentially creating a separate value chain to the bigger supply chain system.”

Comment: Supplier development is essential for businesses looking to build resilience into their supply chains, especially in light of the very necessary move towards localisation to mitigate supply chain disruptions resulting from international geopolitical events.

An enchantingly named marketing outfit called Rogerwilco have quizzed a representative sample of township dwellers on their favourite loyalty programme, and the results are in: A resounding 44% said that their programme of choice was Pick n Pay’s Smart Shopper, with Clicks’ venerable ClubCard programme coming in a relatively distant second at 21%. But all is not lost for Clicks: Clubcard won among the over-45s, whose needs for affordable medication are presumably greater. What else is driving these numbers? It could be that Pick n Pay has 17 outlets in Soweto, and Clicks eight, tracking the popularity of their respective programmes, while Checkers only has three. SPAR, Dis-Chem and Woolies rounded out the top five, in that order. It’s interesting though that Shoprite’s Xtra Savings programme didn’t feature. By all accounts it has massive penetration and has gone down very well with shoppers. A by-product of the survey was that there is massive demand for a spaza-based loyalty programme.

Comment: Given the growing penetration of the informal retail sector by data-intensive IT solutions, such a scheme will no doubt soon be on offer.

Globally, SPAR is celebrating the brand’s 90th anniversary by giving back to communities through the planting of trees with its new initiative, ‘Spar One Tree Planted’. “Not only is a fir tree an inherent element of our identity, but we have always prided ourselves on being a sustainable retailer, focused on giving back,” SPAR says. Speaking of things which grow, Massmart acquired an 87.5% stake in on-demand multi-retailer marketplace, OneCart, in late 2021; since then the platform has experienced Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) growth of over 200%. Currently, OneCart offers customers access to 28 Game and 12 Makro stores – allowing them to shop over 10,000 products across multiple categories. Finally, big up to Gcwalisa, a local retailer in Alexandria, that uses refillable dispensers to allow customers to buy a selection of basic food items and household products through a weigh-and-pay model, for as little as R5.

Comment: One advantage smaller retailers have is that they are able to implement shopper-friendly solutions without faffing about ROI and scaleability.

In the US, grocery giant Kroger is opening its fifth Ocado-powered automated customer fulfilment centre (CFC), in the mountain city of Denver, Colorado. The business is planning on another 12 of these facilities in its determination to establish itself as one of the big three players in online, next to Walmart and Amazon. In the UK, Tesco had a rough first quarter, with online sales down -14.5% and -0.7% less in the big supermarkets, but up +6.2% in its convenience stores, which suggests that punters are buying less but more frequently to keep within budget. There are also indications that they’re migrating to cheaper brands, particularly on basics such as bread, beans and pasta. Finally, Indian grocery giant Reliance Retail has launched an instant grocery delivery service under the JioMart Express brand, trialling the platform in Mumbai. The company plans to expand it into over 200 cities and towns where JioMart is currently operational by the end of the year, taking the battle to competitors Tata-owned Big Basket, Zomato-funded Blinkit, Swiggy's Instamart, Walmart-owned Flipkart Quick, and Zepto.

Comment: A space that is increasingly contested on every continent.

Lucky Star owner, Oceana, has been in the press quite a bit over recent weeks, with news that is mostly not of the positive kind. First it delayed publication of its annual results through Sept 2021 by several months, due to “accounting issues”. This was followed by the suspension of its CFO, Hajra Karrim, in February and just a week later CEO Imraan Soomra suddenly resigned, as did Oceana’s company secretary. Karrim was eventually fired earlier this month due to “gross negligence”. But it doesn’t stop there – a week before its interim results to March could be published, its external auditors, PwC, also – how shall we put it – jumped ship and resigned because of its “strained” relationship with the company. However, late last week, the company announced the appointment of a new company secretary, Nicole Morgan, an admitted attorney of the high court with 12 years' corporate law experience. Baby steps then?

Comment: Quite a period for one of South Africa’s most iconic tinned food brands. Our hope is that it can get things straightened out sooner rather than later.

Two weeks ago, Tiger Brands gave notice that it would be closing its canning factory in Ashton in the Western Cape in 60 days. The closure had originally been announced two years ago, and a consortium of 160 producers began negotiations to acquire the factory. They’re still R300m short of the purchase price, with only two months to find the cash, and hundreds of jobs at stake. Next up: a cold case from our files. The Competition Appeal Court has found that Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) breached conditions of the merger of four of the five Coca-Cola bottlers in 2016, by retrenching 368 employees three years after the restructuring. Coke must now file a plan with the Competition Commission to sort this out, or head for the Constitutional Court. Finally, in better news, Futurelife is teaming up with the Nelson Mandela Foundation Early Childhood Development Programme to mark Mandela Month by providing a million meals for vulnerable children, as part of its drive to distribute over 5 million meals to vulnerable children as well as build a pre-school.

Comment: Any angel investors out there for the Ashton plant? Shoprite?

Our most recent quarterly employment numbers are out, and as you might guess, there is not too much reason to rejoice, although a gain is a gain, so we’ll take it. There were 42,000 more people with jobs in Q1 of 2022 compared to the last three months of 2021, thanks to upticks in community services (+2.4%), manufacturing (+0.7%) and mining (+0.4%). Of those 42,000 souls, only 1,000 were fortunate enough to secure full-time employment, while the remaining 41,000 have had to make do with part-time jobs. Looking at the yearly change between March last year and this, total employment was up 200,000, with only 8,000 of these positions being full time.

Comment: Better than a slap in the face, we suppose. However so much still needs and must be done to draw us out of the employment quagmire. Any suggestions?