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Something they’re calling an “operational update” from Shoprite, for the 52 weeks to 2 July, in which the Group reported that merchandise sales grew +16% to R215bn, while LiquorShop sales increased by +30.8%. Percentage wise, the core business, Supermarkets RSA, achieved sales growth of +17.8%, with like-store sales up +10.3%, and contributing 80.8% to Group sales. Checkers and Checkers Hyper were up +18.0%, while Shoprite and Usave up +15.6%. In rand terms, Non-SA sales increased by +16.4%, contributing 9.1% to Group sales. The Group added an impressive 340 net stores during the period for a total of 3,324 in all geographies. Like all retailers – all businesses, really – Shoprite is taking a hammering on energy-related costs. But it’s doing its level best not to pass these on to punters. “As such, the Group’s full-year gross margin will be lower than that reported last year,” it said.

Comment: Difficult to fault Shoprite, really, on the near-flawless execution of a sound growth strategy at scale.

To Pick n Pay now, with a trading update for the 20 weeks through mid-July. Not a brilliant picture: sales rose just +4.8% YoY, with like-store sales in the domestic market down -0.3%, and sales outside South Africa lifting things somewhat. On top of this, the company incurred diesel costs of R300m for the period. On the upside, online sales grew a handsome +75.3%. This was surely due in part to the deal inked by Pick n Pay last year with Naspers-owned Takealot to allow punters to buy Pick n Pay food, groceries and liquor on Takealot’s Mr D app. As usual, Boxer contributed favourably to the haul, by an unspecified figure. Be this as it may, the markets did not respond favourably to the update, with the share price declining -7.7%, for a total of around -33% over the last year.

Comment: Boxer Superstores remains the jewel in the Pick n Pay crown, and a part of the business in which it would do well to continue investing.

In Merrie England, SPAR has re-opened its 190m² store on the Strensham North Motorway services (better known to us as freeway petrol stations) after significant renovation. The emporium showcases SPAR UK’s latest convenience store design, with new chilled and food-to-go areas, a pair of Costa Coffee self-serve machines and a bakery unit offering croissants, pastries, and donuts. SPAR UK’s Joy of Living Locally messaging was included to tie into the overall design of the rest of the store, and on the tech side, eco-friendly refrigeration and two self-checkouts were installed. Electronic shelf edge labels are placed throughout the store, giving live reporting on sales and margin, stock control and other functions. Also in the UK, Britain’s antitrust regulator has cleared the country’s biggest supermarkets of profiteering from high food costs, but said retailers are not doing enough to allow customers to compare product prices. In Kenya, unrelated, Mambo Retail, consisting of Mauritian conglomerate IBL Group and German and French investors is on the verge of acquiring another 11% of supermarket chain Naivas from the founding Mukuha family for a not inconsiderable $41.7m. This would give Mambo a 51% controlling interest in the business – provided a last-ditch legal attempt by a faction of the Mukuha family to scupper the deal doesn’t work out.

Comment: Retail in Kenya is a hotly contested space, between retailers and, it appears, within.

A new R79m coffee plant for Nestlé this week, in Hammanskraal, where the food giant will be localising production of its Nescafé Gold range of coffee mixes, including Cappuccino Original, Cappuccino Original Reduced Sugar, Cappuccino Salted Caramel Latte, and others too richly flavoured to mention. The range will be manufactured using 46% locally sourced ingredients, at a rate of 5,500 t/y which we understand from our friends at Engineering News is very fast. 90% of production will be targeted at local consumption, with the rest going to other African countries or further afield. The launch of the coffee mixes plant solidified Nestlé’s commitment to industrial development and investment in the region, as well as its commitment to cater to consumers’ evolving needs, says Nestlé ESAR marketing manager Nivasha Pather.

Comment: A tidy investment and another vote of confidence in our embattled market.

A sigh of relief for Unilever, who has settled a long-standing brouhaha at the Competition Commission over a claim that it had colluded with fats and oils supplier Sime Darby in the manufacture and supply of edible oils and margarine, agreeing not to compete with each other. Back in the day, Sime Darby settled with the Commission for R35m, this week Unilever paid just less than half of that without an admission of wrongdoing. Moving on, welcome to the condiments shelf Original Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce, which launched in South Africa a couple years back and may now be found in over 350 independent retailers and around 200 SPAR stores, but which has just launched its own Instagram channel – the first of its kind in the world for the brand, on which it will feature brand, influencer and user-generated content to showcase how South Africans are enjoying their hot sauce. Back to Unilever now, which has incorporated image capture and AI in 50,000 of its freezers around the world, helping them manage stock levels, submit orders, and alert stores when it’s time to restock. The technology has also benefited retailers, increasing their sales by +15 to 35% while allowing them to use the data collected for targeted promotions and market research.

Comment: The rollout of AI-assisted tech in our industry is a revolution with which we have not had the time to reckon.

Last week, against our better judgement, we joined economists in predicting an increase in the interest rate by the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which naturally decided to sit on its hands and leave things as they were. Governor Lesetja Kganyago did say that the move didn’t necessarily mark the end of the hiking cycle, emphasising that economic data, particularly inflation data, would guide future decisions. Enter inflation, stage left. CPI declined significantly for the month of June to 5.4% from 6.3% in May. However, food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by +11.0% YoY, followed in distant second by miscellaneous goods and services at +6.4% and housing and utilities at +4.2%. Transport at +0.3% was barely in the running.

Comment: Food inflation is the big one here, a burden for South Africans that will only get more onerous if our friend and ally Russia continues to mess with the global grain supply.