Pick n Pay has opened its first store in Kitwe, the second-largest city in Zambia, for a total of five in that non-basket case, where the exploitation of resources has surprisingly not led to civil war and starvation. This brings up to 94 their number outside SA, with the distribution as follows:

Lesotho	1
Swaziland	10
Botswana	9
Namibia	17
Mozambique	1
Mauritius	2
Zimbabwe	48 TMs

So a respectable route to market, should you be looking for that sort of thing. A caveat, which is Latin for a head’s up, is that Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has accused the Big Blue of “deliberately sabotaging [his] country’s agriculture” by – gasp – bringing in imports from South Africa, a country where stuff is grown in commercially-viable volumes.

Comment: You’ll be relieved to know that the one shortage Zimbabwe does not have is dangerous lunatics to fill Robert Mugabe’s twinkly little patent leather pumps.

The Dapper One’s Good Business Journey has received a discreet but meaningful nod from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the shape of a three-year broad-based, multifaceted partnership to drive greater sustainability through selected Woolworths products and operations. The partnership will pool significant resources, including technical expertise, research capabilities, industry insights and networks, with Woolies working with its suppliers on targets in its dairy, beef, seafood and textiles operations as well as furthering its carbon and water efficiency strategies. The two have already had some success in their collaborations on the sustainable agricultural programme, Farming for the Future, and WWF-SA’s sustainable fishing initiative (SASSI).

Comment: The partnership is a unique and timely pooling of the resources and goodwill of two sectors which are more frequently seen in opposition to each other.

Dis-Chem are the sort of retailer who prefer to busy themselves by keeping their heads down and selling stuff to shoppers rather than by scripting press releases, so it’s always good to get the skinny on what they’re up to. Which right now, is this: joining the digital stampede™, offering special-needs products, which are not available in-store, online rather than the full basket of goods available in store. A feature of the Dis-Chem model is that the company retains a minimum 51% ownership of each franchise store, controlling surety, operating standards, and service out of the DC inter alia, and ensuring leverage with suppliers. Of particular interest to Dis-Chem are potential franchisees in places like Namibia and Botswana.

Comment: But sadly no word yet on when and indeed whether you and I will be able to trade their securities on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

Last week we reported incorrectly that Rainbow Chicken, and other businesses and institutions, were involved in a Competition Commission finding against Astral into market allocation in the Western Cape. The investigation which led to this finding was a wide-ranging and complex affair, covering arcane aspects of the industry such as broiler production and feed procurement, and hinged substantially on the contention that the various respondents were communicating with each other via SAPA, the industry body. Subsequent to its investigation, the Commission decided not to escalate the complaint to the Competition Tribunal. Rainbow Foods operates successfully, with integrity and innovation, in a tough competitive environment, where, as often reported here, margin is extremely difficult to maintain in the face of foreign imports and high input prices. For our mistake, and for any damage to the reputation of Rainbow, we apologise wholeheartedly.

Private label has taken its toll on the performance of Adcock, the second-largest South African manufacturer of pharmaceuticals. That and input costs, which even for so scientific a sector still include the basics like water, transport and labour. But wait there’s more: It was “a perfect storm of inflationary prices, the rand going the wrong way and retailers under pressure coming with the begging bowl,” avers CEO Dr Jonathan Louw. The net effect has been a 19% decline in operating profit to R869million off a 2.4% increase in revenue to R4.64billion. Another possible reason for Adcock’s difficulty in the current climate of stressed consumers is its high exposure to over the counter products relative to its competitors, although looking at the numbers, OTC seems to be in better shape than prescription right now.

Comment: A great South African business with some beloved brands, fighting it out in a tough market with more variables than most.

Rockyish results from Pioneer: revenue up 10% to R18.6billion for the 12 months to September, with volumes down by about 5% and selling prices up by 15% on average, and headline earnings declining by a substantial 17% to R606 million, due mainly to once-off costs associated with a BEE deal. The agri business was particularly hard hit, with a net loss of R49million on 12% growth – cheap chicken imports, again. And beverages, even worse, with a 35% decline in operating profit. On the upside, good volume growth in breakfast cereals, especially Weet-Bix, with Sasko so-so, growing revenue 10% and the rice business benefiting from high maize meal prices and presenting the oriental grain as an affordable alternative.

Comment: When it comes to results time, Pioneer, with its preponderance of staples, is a good dipstick for how the actual consumer is doing out there.

According to the brainy coves over at the FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index, things are looking a little shaky right now, with the overall index declining to -3 in the fourth quarter from -1 in the third. This puts it at the level we last experienced in the second half of 2008 when there was all that unpleasantness with banks and mortgages and stockmageddon and whatnot. Interestingly, however, getting a little more granular, ahem, punters’ rating of the general outlook for the economy and the favourability of the timing to fork out for microwaves and Toyotas has declined, with that index hitting -7, but their view of their own prospects has rather optimistically remained unchanged.

Comment: This, it needs not be said, bodes ill for spending down the line.

Inspired perhaps by those clever young men over at the Apple store, Absa are launching a mobile payment device for small businesses, enabling them to accept debit or credit card payments using their smartphones or tablets through a world first, plug-in device called ‘The Payment Pebble’ through an agreement with a local payment innovations company thumbzup.