One-time PnP acquisition target Fruit & Veg City has opened a 1,400m² wholesale outlet in Boksburg, where they like the crunchy stuff as much as the next man. With this new format, FVC are targeting the currently-busy hospitality industry, the restaurant trade, small retailers and regular shoppers. Butchery, frozen seafood, international cheese and deli, and, of course, a biltong bar are on hand.

Comment: Geniet.

...want jy’s benoem as die Coolest Specialist Health and Beauty Store in die Sunday Times Generation Next. The survey polls kids aged 13-22, and Clicks won the inaugural award in this category. Clicks are “stoked” as those crazy youngsters say, as people in this age bracket are “household influencers” as those crazy research folk say.

Comment: Rad. Or sick. Or something.

Pick n Pay won in the (typically wordy) “Companies and Organisations with Innovative Environmental Strategies that Improve Business Performance” category in the Mail & Guardian’s Greening the Future awards, a milestone along the Big Blue’s five-year sustainability journey upon which it embarked in ’07.

Comment: It’s getting a little crowded on the old PnP mantelpiece these days. Nice one.

SACCAWU has said that even if Massmart isn’t being bought by Walmart, it is behaving like the big-box Yankee union-basher, as the public standoff between the two over possible retrenchments at the Massdiscounters (Game and Dion) division enters week 3. Massmart, you will recall, has had the unspeakable arrogance to table proposals which would avoid over 50% of retrenchments that may result from changes in distribution.

Comment: We’re not big on union bashing ourselves, but SACCAWU’s recent efforts seem, shall we say, misguided.

Burgeoning pharmacy business Dis-Chem has got a court order preventing striking SACCAWU members from harassing other staff. The union is calling for a R3,500 minimum wage, a 15% annual increase and union recognition. Part of the problem, if you’re SACCAWU, is that they’re a minority union in the business, which is not compelled by law to negotiate with them.

Comment: But nice try.

The Big Feller has issued a total of 46.2 million new shares, worth an estimated R7.3billions, to black-owned retailers, employees and historically-disadvantaged communities, under the Zenzele scheme, which offer was 29% over-subscribed. Powerful, meaningful and innovative stuff.

Comment: A bit like their new Black Label draught.

Parmalat has led the charge in dropping the purchase price of raw milk from farmers by 30c per litre, effective immediately, with another 30c cut on its way on 1 July. Lancewood, Clover and Dairy Belle have announced that they will follow suit, to the dismay of farmers, who have mentioned, as they do, that this could put them out of business. At fault, apparently, is consumer demand.

Comment: Which in these straitened times is calling for something a little cheaper on the Rice Crispies in the morning.

Poultry producer Astral Foods is consolidating its decade-old position in Zambia with a new state-of-the-art broiler breeding farm in the South of that increasingly attractive investment destination. The facility is to be known as TIGERChicks, and falls under the Tiger Animal Feeds Zambia division. The hatchery is currently running at 120,000 chicks per week.

Comment: We thought TIGERChicks was some sort of agency for the promotion in nightclubs of small, colourful alcoholic beverages, but hey...

Despite SA’s tentative emergence from recession, consumers are still leery of heading down to the waterhole and spending a bit of wedge, according to the number-crunchers over at Ernst & Young. The Bureau of Economic Research (BER) says that real consumer spending fell by 3.1% in ’09, but is expected to gain momentum during the course of 2010, while the pipe-tugging sages at StatsSA inform us that sales ticked up 1% YOY for March, after a nasty little 1.3% contraction in Feb.

Comment: Stick to the Grand Mousseaux for now.

Restaurateurs and sports shops are winning the World Cup, with furniture and informal retailers bringing up the rear, according to Cadiz Securities, who reckon that even if SA Tourism’s target of 10 million visitors in 2010 is met, which seems unlikely, foreigners would contribute only R803million to retail spend. The tweeded economists at Stanlib, in the meantime, reckon that the World Cup will add 0.4% to GDP, which is “meaningful but significant”.

Comment: And takes into account the loss of productivity caused by you lot nipping down the boozer for the 4.30 kick off.

Flying in the face of the patently nonsensical view that trends have to be current, here are some interesting numbers from 2008, brought to you by Environmental Leader, in a report titled “Getting From Green To Gold: Retail Success Factors and Outcomes”, which listed the six key focus areas for retailers wanting to do the right thing by Mother Earth and all her children:

• Adopt enterprise-wide policies for green sourcing/procurement
• Institute eco-friendly mandates for waste management
• Institute eco-friendly mandates around packaging
• Redesign the retail supply chain to align with green/responsible mandates
• Offer eco-friendly end-of-life product programs to customers
• Redesign store facilities and infrastructure around sustainability goals

Comment: Old green trends never die, they just recycle, groan, shut up, etc.