It’s worth reporting on a new promo at Pick n Pay, which will no doubt be of interest to the suppliers among our readers. Pick n Pay Fresh Creations, a new promotional platform in selected stores, combines popular fresh produce items with nationally listed grocery brands to give shoppers access to quick and easy meal solutions. The promo is aimed at giving punters inspiration for quick and easy recipes, taking away the hassle of thinking of meal ideas while shopping. “At the same time, it provides our suppliers visibility outside of their respective categories,” says Head of Fresh Liz van Niekerk. Shoppers can scan point-of-sale and on-pack QR codes that link them directly to the recipe and shopping list on Pick and Pay’s website, then pick up the fresh produce and grocery items at a promotional stand positioned front and centre in stores and move through the store to shop for the rest of the recipe items.

Comment: Smart shopping, indeed, that will shift produce, get brands on board, and even drive footfall in less-frequented areas of the store.

So, Shoprite will be entering the clothing space in March next year – late enough for all its competitors to have tested the market and made the mistakes, early enough to make a buck. It will be starting small, with 10 to 12 stores for which premises have already been secured and will walk away if it doesn’t work out. Which is also a Shoprite strength. The Group is otherwise tight lipped about where the brand will be pitched – although Checkers’ (and by extension Pick n Pay’s) more middle-and-upper income market is a safe bet, as the Group wouldn’t want to go up against its second cousin once removed, Pep. In other brand extension news from the Big Red One, its Petshop Science stores have done well apparently, and 50 are expected to be up and running by June next year. Checkers Outdoor, with two stores, is a longer play. The Xtra Savings rewards programme, launched in 2020, has picked up 9.3 million members at Checkers and signed up 15.5 million at Shoprite.

Comment: A veritable hive of innovation.

To Woolies, which has now rolled out its reusable bags drop-off service to over 150 stores, putting the reverse-logistics system through its paces in the process. Bags are returned with other recyclable store waste to the DCs, where it is then sorted before moving onto recyclers for second-life trials. Various second-life options are being tested on a bigger scale to finalise the best option for the worn bags. “While recycling alone cannot solve the world’s pollution problems, it has significant potential to impact cleaning up our waste systems, creating jobs and reducing the use of virgin plastics,” says Woolies Foods chief technology and sustainability officer Latiefa Behardien. Woolies’ sustainability efforts are being guided by a genuine belief in both the moral imperative and the business case for action. Finally, SPAR’s travails continue, with scrutiny from analysts on the position of Graham O’Connor as Board chair, immediately after he had spent six years as CEO – contrary to the recommendations of the King Code on corporate governance. His interest in the Rencken Group, one of SPAR’s major retailer members, further muddies the waters.

Comment: A rule of thumb for businesses and leaders alike: if it looks bad, rather don’t do it, whatever the technicalities and reality of the situation.

To Tanzania, where IT start-up Ramani systems has announced the closure of its $32m A-round of funding for the construction of a cloud network of micro-distribution centres (MDCs). Ramani provides tech-enabled inventory management systems, procurement, and point of sale software to digitise the processes of MDCs, helping them gain real-time sales insights and inventory visibility. Ramani then leverages this data to offer up inventory with delayed payment terms, enabling small businesses to scale. “Ultimately, we want to make it easier for businesses to succeed in Africa and this new capital is another brick in that foundation. We’ve leveraged our Silicon Valley relationships and partnered with globally renowned investors, many of whom are successful founders themselves. We’re committed to repaying their faith in us and in Africa,” says co-founder Calvin Usiri.

Comment: “Always something new out of Africa”, as Pliny the Elder was fond of observing. And for something else truly new out of Africa, have a look at our Retail in Africa report, out next week.

Those Tiger Brands results for the year through September: turnover up +10% to R34bn, with price inflation at +11% and volume down -1%. The export fruit business was a notable performer, growing +19% to R4.3bn, offsetting volume declines in pasta, bread, flour and maize and the personal care and household goods divisions. In a year of high inflation, Tiger was able to claw some of its input costs back, increasing selling prices by +11%. Something they’re calling “profit from continuing operations” came through at R2.85bn, up over +60% from last year. The Striped One is considering various measures for growth, including producing private label for retailers, something they’ve never sullied their hands with before now, and are perhaps looking at opportunities for relevant acquisitions.

Comment: Nice work, Tiger, with some way still to go before the difficulties of the past few years are behind it. But is it too much to ask that businesses simply report their operating profit, rather than confusing things with “continuing operations”, or hiding behind a hedge of HEPS?

In a fairly dramatic development (at a time when we have seen more than a few of those), Premier has announced that it will not immediately be listing on the JSE as planned. This after the -3% decline of the rand against the dollar and turmoil in the capital markets on ongoing news of the Phala Phala imbroglio, and despite appetite from investors for the listing. Not unrelated, Nampak’s share price plummeted more than -30% on Thursday after the packaging outfit proposed a rights issue of R2bn to meet its onerous debt obligations of northwards of R5bn, much of that incurred as it explored other African markets some ten years ago and more. Finally, in some positive news for a business which surely needs some, a consortium of all Tongaat Hulett-supplying growers has submitted a proposal for the acquisition of the business’s sugar assets. The proposal, which has been welcomed by industry payers, is aimed at ensuring the survival of these farming operations and the thousands of livelihoods who depend on them and securing the socio-economic stability of the greater region.

Comment: This could mark a return of a great KZN business to its agricultural roots, after a long and, as it turns out, questionable foray into property development.

The bearded sages over at StatsSA (which has more S’s in it than 99.83% of comparable acronyms) have released the anxiously-awaited GDP numbers for the third quarter, and everyone now breathe: the dear old South African economy grew +1.6% for the three months through September, having declined -0.7% in the previous three. And the really good news is that we’re now in proud possession of a fiscus that is slightly bigger than the one we had before COVID. The big drivers on the supply side of the economy were agriculture (at a blistering +19.2%), finance, transport and manufacturing industries, while a rise in exports and in government consumption drove growth on the demand side. Manufacturing came in at +1.5%, while retail (bundled in with catering and accommodation), grew just +1.3%. In other news, the rand declined over -3% to just under R18 against the dollar amid the Phala Phala scandal.

Comment: In our fragile state this might yet undo the gains in economic productivity.