Massmart have become a sort of lightning rod for the toughness of the times, reporting sales growth of only 5% in the 14 weeks to 4 October, with like store sales just 0.7%. Compare this to Shoprite’s 15.9% growth in turnover for a similar period, and you can see why sweat might be beading on those youthful Massmart brows right now. The problem, it seems, is Massmart’s exposure to general merchandise relative to Shoprite’s more defensive positioning in food. Should the recession rage on, Massmart is expecting a decline in first-half profits for the 2010 financial year compared with the more buoyant first six months of 2009.

Comment: In fairness to Massmart, it’s been warning shareholders of this eventuality for close on a year now – the mark of a prudent and refreshingly realistic operation.

Woolworths has been recognised as having “outstanding climate change-related disclosure” and now occupies second place on the JSE’s Top 100 Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index, which measures businesses on the quality of the info they disclose in response to the international Carbon Disclosure project’s 2009 questionnaire. In particular, Woolies has been given the approving nod for its holistic and strategic approach and the implementation of this through the Good Business Journey. Woolies is aiming to reduce both carbon emissions and relative energy usage by 30% by 2012, though a range of efficiency measures which include remote monitoring of lighting and aircon, heat recycling and automated energy systems.

Comment: Sterling stuff from the impeccable one.

Further hats off to the dapper one on the green front. Woolies (this just in) is pioneering a new method of farming fresh produce, under the banner Farming for the Future. This project aims to radically improve soil and plant health, preserve natural resources like water and topsoil, and protect natural diversity. Initial trials show that yields are more consistent, and land, water, pesticide, insecticide and fertiliser usage is reduced. Currently, over 50% of Woolies’ fresh produce is grown this way, and by 2012, all of it will be organically grown or grown using these principles. Each farm participating in the project has been independently audited for the practices aimed at achieving the defined outcomes, and some, which have been farming this way for five years and more, are up to 90% compliant.

Comment: Nothing less than an agricultural revolution, in which, characteristically, Woolies is leading the way.

This grand old industry we call home was more than adequately represented in the Sunday Times Rich List, with Mnr Wiese of Shoprite inter alia and the Ackerman family pitching up at 4th and 5th respectively. Wiese is worth a few bob north of R5 billions, and the Ackermans a more dignified R3 billion odd. So far so loaded. But when it comes to the top earners index, an executive position in the consumer packaged goods industry (if that’s what we’re calling it) is not all that – our main man there is SABMiller’s Graham Mackay at 9th followed by Rainbow’s Miles Dally at 12th.

Comment: The tone of the list this year is censorious rather than congratulatory when it comes to executive remuneration, SA now having outstripped Brazil in income inequality, and chaps like Supergroup’s Larry Lipschitz giving the whole thing a bad name, by being ludicrously overcompensated for presiding over a train smash.

A bit of a mouthful (well, it would be) but upscale choc maker Ferrero Ithemba SA has recently been awarded the 2009 Italian-South African Chamber of Trade and Industries FNB Business Excellence Awards. The award is given to the business which best contributes to the enhancement of the (sizeable) Italian-South African business community, and trade between the countries. Ferrero, you will recall, brings such goodies to our shelves as their eponymous (ahem) chocolates, Kinder Joy, Nutella and Tic Tac, and was judged for the award on a range of criteria, including financial success, spirit of entrepreneurship and sustainability. As we mentioned in these virtual pages some time ago, Ferrero is single-handledly responsible for the development of the hazelnut industry on these shores, whither it has imported in excess of a million trees, resulting in job creation and agricultural revenue.

Comment: Great stuff for a great business under the new stewardship of Glendinning alumnus Nick Terry.

SABMiller sees Africa as the market with the strongest potential for economic growth, a thirsty continent with the fastest-growing population in the world, where despite significant market penetration (16 countries on its own and a further 22 in a strategic alliance with the Castel Group) there’s always room for a little more. And then there’s the drinkers themselves – while South Africans chug through 60 litres of beer each a year, our wussie cousins up north only manage 6 litres apiece – could do better, boys! Accordingly, the Big Feller is lashing out $370 million capex on the continent for the second year in a row, with a view to topping that up annually to the tune of $200 large. And it’s not all about beer – SAB currently bottles about a third of all Coca-Cola sold on the continent, and water is set to go through the roof.

Comment: Vintage stuff from SABMiller – global experience translates into a strategic plan for the continent, where its execution will be carried out with trademark flexibility.

South Africa has lost one million jobs since January, and it is unlikely we will be getting them back anytime soon – the prospects for economic recovery are watery, and job-recovery lags economic recovery anyway. And, as any number of gloomy economists will tell you, even when growth was booming we still didn’t crack the employment puzzle. What is required, they say, is a whole new growth path for the economy. In the meantime, government interventions – such as short-term programmes in the motor industry – have helped to mitigate losses. Among the hardest-hit industries, apart from auto, have been manufacturing, textiles and financial services. Worst hit has been the trade sector, which includes, hotels, restaurants and retailers, with 324 000 jobs lost.

Comment: And what does this new economy look like? Perhaps it has something to do with renewable energy and sustainable agriculture...

Globally, over 50% of consumers have permanently changed their attitude to saving, while 79% of South Africans say they will do their best not to go back to their profligate pre-bust ways should our economy ever recover. This according to research boffs Synovate, who chatted to over 11 000 respondents from 16 countries. The survey showed that South Africans are second in line globally when it comes to the likelihood of switching to safer investments, and were most likely to have switched banks in the last six months, in order, presumably, to gain some semblance of control over their financial affairs. 17% of us had closed a credit card account in this period, second only to Brazil at 21%, and 52% of us have rewritten or revised our budgets, leading the world in this regard.

Comment: Huge stuff with major implications for consumer spending – and perhaps even greater implications for a more sustainable economy down the line.

Neither Pick n Pay nor Shoprite are backing down on their market share claims, and both have suggested that they’re simply telling it like it was told them by Nielsen, leading certain hardened cynics to suggest that Nielsen are telling them each what they want to hear, which works for a while. Kind of reminds us of the last season of Idols...

CPI was down to 6.1% in September, from 6.4% in August, and just outside the government’s targeted 3-6% band. Don’t let that cheer you up though, according to the mopy economists you’ll find warming their hands round half-barrels full of burning dissertations on street corners. They reckon it’s going north again when Eskom’s criminal incompetence comes for our savings.

We had the brief (“Fast Moving Goods”), the academic (“Variety Consumer Product Industry”, or VCPI) and the wiseass (“Attempted Strategic Selling Sector”, you figure out the acronym) but in the end, a powerful argument was made, backed up by an impressive amount of admittedly online research, to go back to FMCG. Congratulations to the very thorough Mr Abrie de Swardt of Imperial Logistics, for renaming this great industry of ours. Now let’s see if it sticks...