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Big news over at Pick n Pay, where Pieter Boone has stepped down abruptly after two-and-a-half troubled years at the helm, which he assumed in the midst of COVID lockdowns and held through the civil unrest of 2021 and the ongoing energy crisis. And while Pick n Pay’s market share declined during his tenure, as Shoprite assumed ascendancy, he did in fairness oversee the continued growth of Boxer, the rise of omnichannel and clothing, and – although the jury is still out on this one – the launch of QualiSave. He is to be replaced by … wait for it … Liam Neeson! (checks notes) … Sean Summers! A man who also has a very particular set of skills, including running the Pick n Pay business at the height of it powers as CEO from 1999 to 2007. Summers has been running the 450-store UK beds and furniture business of Steinhoff, whose disgraced CEO Markus Jooste he famously clashed with. “I always liken retail to hand-to-hand combat,” says Summers. “It is. There are fixed bayonets in the trenches every day, and it’s real warfare.”

Comment: A bold move. Enough to take some ground back from Shoprite? Maybe.

Another business making dramatic and timely cuts this week is SPAR, which has announced the sale of its underperforming Polish operations. In 2019, you will recall, SPAR bought a controlling stake in Polish deli and supermarket chain Piotr i Paweł. SPAR has since attempted to turn it around by attracting new retail members with better rebates, closing loss-making stores and rolling out new formats like forecourts stores – all to no avail. Despite an uptick in membership, a +5% increase in sales for the 47 weeks through August, and a reduction in operating losses, the turnaround has not been quick enough for SPAR and it is now looking for a buyer. For the same trading period, turnover for the business grew +10.6%, despite the costs of living crisis in every geography in which it operates. At a Group level, sales at retail were up +5.9%, while wholesale grew +8.1%, with wholesale inflation running at 10.1%. Sales from TOPS were down -0.6%, though, after its post-COVID spike of 43%.

Comment: A business working hard to get its house in order after a troubled period.

Where to start? First up, Shoprite estimates that at least 100,000 additional social grant payments are flowing into their Money Market accounts every month as a result of the dysfunction in the Government’s Postbank system. Using Money Market, punters are able to access their money from their homes on their mobile phones or collect it in store. Staying with Shoprite, Discovery Vitality has partnered with Checkers and its Sixty60 delivery platform to offer the financial services Group’s HealthyFood benefit, enabling Discovery Vitality members to earn up to 75% back on health food purchases. Next, Makro has launched a new B2B e-commerce platform, Makro Business. It aims to provide business customers like corporates, schools, hotels and restaurants, independent retailers, etc., access to the full Makro offering which is supported through a pickup or delivery service that promises efficient order fulfilment. Finally, Game has cannily opened an unbranded bargain-basement outlet, the Last Chance Store, in Fourways Mall, where shoppers can get discounts of up to 60% on excess stock.

Comment: Smart moves all around, with retailers tapping into real-life challenges for additional margin.

In the US, various parties have stood up to oppose the acquisition by Kroger of rival Albertsons for a cool $24.6bn. At least one consumer group is suing to block the deal which will see the closure of 200 stores in a country which oddly has fewer options for grocery shopping than might be expected, and now the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is likely to get involved for various arcane reasons. “The standard under the law is a merger is anti-competitive unless there is a remedy that fully restores competition,” says former FTC former policy director David Balto, ominously. Onto Carrefour, who is playing a little dirty and has slapped price warnings on products from Lindt chocolates to Lipton Ice Tea as a means of pressuring suppliers like Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever to cut prices ahead of contract negotiations. Notably, they’re putting stickers on products that have shrunk in size but cost more, even after raw materials prices have dropped, to rally shoppers to their cause.

Comment: Tough tactics, of unproven impact on shoppers who tend to associate the price with the store and not the often-faceless brand parent.

Dube TradePort is an ambitious business and industrial development zone centred in the rolling canefields around Durban’s King Shaka Airport. It’s home to various concerns, most recently a new R75m manufacturing facility for Futurelife^®, South Africa’s iconic yet surprisingly youthful PepsiCo-owned breakfast brand. The flagship facility is a modern factory that streamlines production processes, enhances efficiency, and embraces flexibility to better meet the evolving needs of Futurelife^® fans, and will also have a (no doubt open plan) design studio for developing innovative new products. Futurelife^®, you will recall, was launched in 2007 as a social project – a fortified food to improve the lives of malnourished and disadvantaged people across sub-Saharan Africa. It contains Moducare^®, a daily immune supplement, made from a patented blend of plant sterols and sterolins. Everyone from athletes to schoolkids quickly got on board, and the rest is history.

Comment: A success on so many levels, and a shot in the arm for the Dube Tradeport, itself a visionary undertaking.

First up, congrats to McCain on the launch of its ‘Hot Potato’ podcast, which does the necessary work of demystifying the complexities of sustainable farming, emphasising its pivotal role in combating climate change and shaping the future of the food industry. Critically important stuff for the industries and businesses that are of sufficient scale to do something about the current and looming crises in food security and planetary health. Next, nice work by the Hawks, who have apprehended two sisters from Pretoria, Barbara van Zyl and Christa Smith, for allegedly defrauding food and packaged goods group Premier of R137m through the diversion of payments from customers to their own bank accounts. They were both senior credit controllers, a position almost uniquely suited to shenanigans of this nature. Finally, happy birthday to Energade, 30 this year, and a household name in high-performance sports and hydration, with production up to 77 million bottles per year in a highly competitive market, up from 43 million just three years ago.

Comment: Take that, Logan Paul and Prime Energy.

According to Euromonitor, these (in a nutshell) are the top ten trends impacting African consumers and shoppers right now:
Budgeteers: Buying in bulk and buying cheaper substitutes to make ends meet.
Here and now: Cheap little treats give beleaguered shoppers some instant gratification.
Eco-economic: Spending cuts can result in more sustainable behaviour – repair vs replace, rent vs buy.
Authentic automation: Convenience and tech with a (not yet literal) human face.
Control the scroll: Apps that provide a seamless interface for time-conscious consumers.
Game on Gamify your marketing: As a part of the interactive customer journey.
Young and disrupted: The kids are determined to live their best life in the face of disruption.
Revived routines: Real-life experiences and normalised routines bounce back after COVID.
The thrives: An increased focus on what matters – especially health and wellness.
She rises: Workplaces and brands are becoming more gender inclusive.

Comment: There you have it. Some good stuff in there for the canny marketer.