Goodness, is that the time already? A new trading update from Pick n Pay before the last one has even dried on the racks. Anyway, Group sales for the six months through August were up +11.5%, with like-store sales growing +7.4%. This performance, they say, was driven in large part by the ongoing success of the Boxer Superstores brand, although the exact numbers on that remain opaque for just a while longer (or so we’ve been promised). HEPS, a reliable though slightly hysterical measure of profitability, will reportedly storm in at between 55 and 65%. Looking forward, the plan is to sharpen its focus on the three distinct brands that now make up the business – Pick n Pay, Pick n Pay QualiSave and Boxer – offering tailored choices for different socioeconomic classes. “In hindsight, we over-centralised the business and lost proximity to communities,” admits Group CEO Pieter Boone, speaking of the wilderness years. The plan is ultimately to convert around 40% of existing Pick n Pay stores to Pick n Pay QualiSaves.

Comment: The ongoing growth of the Boxer brand has been one of the most remarkable stories of the last ten years. Hopefully the success can be repeated with the new brand.

A quick check in on Shoprite. In the piecemeal reporting of retail news, we sometimes lose sight of the bigger trends, and the big trend with Shoprite right now is one of untrammelled growth and unchallenged supremacy in the retail universe. Did you know, for example, that it’s got into camping? And not as a down-home corporate retreat, but as a profit centre. Following the success of its Outdoor store in Hermanus, it’s going to be opening more around the country. It’s already got 47 Petshop Science locations up and running, and a couple of Little Me baby stores in play too. Last week we noted that it was going big into banking with its Money Market account, offering Capitec a run for its money (see what we did there) and for some time now has been offering insurance products in partnership with OUTsurance. Geographically, too, it’s covering bases: while our own market is pretty consolidated, Shoprite is still operating in other African countries, despite the strategic retreats it’s beaten from Kenya, Nigeria and Madagascar.

Comment: A textbook case of diversifying while retaining your focus and protecting the integrity of your core brands.

The baby category – rather cloyingly referred to simply as ‘baby’ in our industry – is experiencing something of a gold rush these days. And by gold rush, we mean an unseemly scramble to shovel up what remains of a finite resource – the disposable incomes of new parents. Take Dis-Chem for example – after buying out the Baby City brand in late 2020, it went after Baby Boom, a smaller retailer with 23 stores and a less premium offering a year later in a deal which faced stiff opposition from competitors but was approved by the Competition Commission. In the meantime, the other retailers are going all-in on their own offerings: Clicks, for example, has just opened its fourth standalone Clicks Baby Store in Menlyn Park, Pretoria, which inter alia will offer Babyhood Australia, a premium innovative nursery furniture brand that ‘grows’ with the child. Mr Price Baby, you will recall, launched several standalone stores in August, and Checkers opened its first standalone Little Me store in late 2021. And Massmart’s Game is still struggling, erm, gamely to entrench its baby offering in the heart of the value-conscious punter.

Comment: It’s a mark of the consolidation of our sector that where one goes, everyone else must pile on. It’s going to be great when one of our great retailers does something different.

In Germany, where the modern discounter model that has taken the world by storm had its unlikely birthplace, Aldi Nord is still hellbent on expansion, establishing three specialised real estate offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Essen to deal with all the new locations it’ll be acquiring. New stores and DCs will experiment with multi-level design to save space, and will operate without fossil fuels, using photovoltaic systems and integral technology that uses the waste heat from the cooling systems, eliminating its reliance on Russian gas. Also in Europe, SPAR has saved 2.5 million meals worth of close to expiry food and fed the corresponding number of value-hungry punters, in its partnership with surplus food app ‘Too Good To Go’. Finally, in the UK, 180-year-old community retailer Co-op has fleshed out a bold strategy to grow by more than trebling its base of franchise stores within three years and grow its e-commerce business by expanding its partnerships with Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Amazon.

Comment: Nice work SPAR. Similar initiatives are being attempted in our own hungry country, but there’s always room for more FMCG businesses to get on board

After a recent recall of Purity Essentials baby powder that may have contained traces of asbestos, Tiger Brands has worked its way back into the good graces of investors on the news that losses from the recall will be negligible, and that it should be able to pass most of its whacking 15% cost inflation back to consumers. And also, not incidentally, that headline earnings per share (by which punters like to measure profitability) should be up +35 – 45% for the year. This was partially the result of a recovery in the sale of snacks and treats including Beacon sweets, in improved performance at bread-producer Wheat Millbake, and in more robust exports. “High levels of inflation are anticipated to persist across our basket well into the next financial year, which will require ongoing agility and judicious price-volume management in the face of a challenged consumer,” warns the Striped One.

Comment: Good news for shareholders is not always good news for consumers.

Things seemed to be back on an even keel over at Oceana Brands, with the appointment as CFO designate of Zafar Mahomed, ex of Cell C and McDonalds SA. He joins new CEO Neville Brink in a move that will reassure investors after a rocky few months in which Hajra Karrim was fired as CFO for gross misconduct, and CEO Imraan Soomra resigned for unspecified personal reasons. Next up, Cape Almonds (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of local farming and fresh produce outfit ZZ2, has brought to market 50 tons of locally grown almonds under the Al Monde brand name. The almonds are mainly of the Independence cultivar, which is self-pollinating and self-fertile, and was developed by the Californian breeder, Zaiger’s Inc. Genetics, taking pollinators such as bees out of the value chain. Cape Almonds has planted around 700 ha of these almond trees throughout the Western Cape province.

Comment: Gonna be honest here, that doesn’t sound super-organic. A bit of local job creation is always nice though.

It’s October: do you know where the stokvels will be spending their cash this Christmas? With the deepening realisation among banks that South Africa’s stokvels represent a vast and growing pool of liquidity looking for a home, it may be that even in this difficult year the stokvels have a little extra to spend or disburse to their members. Stokvels, defined by the fundis as a special type of rotating savings and credit association are worth around R49bn, have a membership of 11.5 million per one 2019 estimate, and date back to the 19th century as an institution. At least 820,000 stokvels are currently operating in our Beloved Country and are regulated by the National Stokvel Association of South Africa (NASASA). Their members are 57% women, the most popular types of stokvels are grocery stokvels and burial societies, and – here’s the punchline from Nedbank, an institution not noted for its sense of humour – “Two-thirds of grocery stokvels make bulk purchases from various retailers and wholesalers once a year in quarter four.”

Comment: Time to get busy, get creative, and reach out to this most value-conscious and organised consumer segment.