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Those Dis-Chem results, then, for the year through February 2021: retail revenue up +7.6% to R23.4bn, with retail operating profit down -8.9% to R1.2bn, although headline earnings, a generally dependable measure of the old bottom line, were up +11.8% as wholesale turned a profit. Like store sales were up +2.7% on the back of 22 store openings, including three Mediclinics and the acquisition of two pharmacies, for a total of 194. And brand-new acquisition Baby City, which came onstream in January this year, contributed a bouncing R128m to revenue. Of particular interest is the Group’s tidy increase in revenue of +12.6% for the 10 weeks to 10 May, even before Dis-Chem had commenced its COVID vaccination rollout. It has secured 32 dedicated sites for this and at full capacity will be delivering 800,000 shots a month.

Comment: A tidy set of results in a very challenging year (on which you can read more here), even for the pharmacy sector. Dis-Chem is often compared with Clicks; perhaps rather than competing directly with that larger business it is charting its own course.

A trading update from Massmart, who always seems to spring these things on us at odd intervals. Sales up +8% to R30.5bn for the 19 weeks through 9 May, with sales in South African stores increasing an even healthier +10.1% to R27.9bn, and sales outside of South Africa declining by around the same. The growth in South Africa came despite an estimated YoY decline in liquor sales of R770m. Makro grew sales +16.6% despite pressure on the food business as a result of a struggling hospitality and service sector, while sales in the embattled cash and carry business declined marginally; sales at Cambridge were down -8.4%. Builders, though: sales up a barnstorming +39.4% to R4.9bn (remember, though, that Builders lost most of April last year, but still…). And all of this against last year’s results, where Group sales were down -7.7% for the year through December.

Comment: All of this points to a Massmart recovery, which seems set to accelerate as underperforming assets and inefficiencies are removed from the equation.

A couple of observations from around this great industry we call home. One is that just a few months after opening its 300th store, Boxer Superstores has opened its 350th, namely Boxer Liquors Tswelopele in the Free State. “The past year has been a challenge. However, despite the obstacles the country has had to face, the supermarket group has shown its resilience. This milestone is testament to that resilience,” says Marek Masojada, Boxer’s managing executive, with what we would argue is a surfeit of modesty. Nice one. The other is that Woolworths has let it be known that both HEPS and EPS for the year through June are likely to storm through at +20% more than last year, mainly as a result of the sale of the Elizabeth Street David Jones and the Bourke Street Men’s properties in Australia, in which blighted geography they seem less inclined to continue taking a hammering than they were under the old boss.

Comment: Anyone else starting to feel that our retailers are starting to feel the rush of water under the keel and the invigorating sensation of wind in their hair?

Seeing as we’re banging on about results this week, let’s give the Big Feller a look in shall we? Like-store sales at Walmart grew +6% for Q1 in the US, compared with an expected +2% gain, according to Bloomberg. It attributes this performance to a turnaround in market-share losses in its grocery unit, stimulus cheques, and pent-up demand after a year in lockdown. Also in the US, Walmart and Target are both trialling their own local delivery fleets after nearly crashing the US Postal service during the pandemic, which is fast on the retreat in the Home of the Brave. And in the UK, Tesco is rebranding 89 of its Metro stores as Tesco Express stores, with the remaining 58 becoming superstores. “Our Metro format was originally designed for larger, weekly shops, but today nearly 70 per cent of customers use them as convenience stores, buying food for that day,” Tesco said in an internal communication.

Comment: These weekly dispatches from international retail paint a larger picture of an industry in a state of transition on a scale none of us have truly wrapped our heads around yet.

Interims are in for the Striped One, who has declared a dividend of R3.20 South African rand per share as HEPS grew +21% for the six months through March. This on the back of strong revenue growth in Q1 and cost saving and efficiency initiatives across the portfolio. Revenue from continuing operations was up +8% to R16.4bn, with price inflation of 9%, but a slight decline in overall volume of -1%. Operating income increased +16% to R1.6bn. The grains business grew revenue +10% to R7.5bn, home and personal care was up +6% to R1.1bn, consumer brands grew +4%, and exports soared at +18% up, for a total of R1.8bn. All good so far, but CEO Noel Doyle is far from sanguine about what lies ahead, especially should a third wave of COVID-19 take hold. “I am concerned about the underlying consumer demand for food and other household goods,” he avers and is particularly concerned about rising input costs. “The reality is that the market is not able to absorb costs,” he says.

Comment: Our great manufacturing sector faces the sharp edge of our economic challenges on a daily basis. These results should be viewed in that light.

To the barricades! Or failing that, to the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB)! Such was the cry of Colgate-Palmolive, manufacturers of Protex, as it lodged its complaint against Unilever’s Lifebuoy brand on the grounds that the use of the word “infection” on its packaging created the impression that the pungent family staple has medicinal properties it does not in fact possess. The Board has ruled that Lifebuoy is making no such claim, although last year ruled that Lifebuoy could no longer state on its packaging that its products offered protection from “100 illness-causing germs”. Protex is itself fresh from the field of a dispute with Dettol manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser, in which the authority instructed it to drop claims that its soap boosts natural antigerm protection because of flaxseed ingredients in its soaps.

Comment: A fascinating insight into the fierce competition in a corner of the industry where functional benefit is everything and must be jealously guarded.

Economic indicators hinted at this week suggest that the dear old South African economy is once more on the move, albeit slowly. Manufacturing and mining production, and retail sales increased marginally in the three months through March compared with the previous quarter. Manufacturing and mining contribute almost 25% to the overall economy, with retail coming through at 16%. Various pundits predict that the economy will grow as much as +3.9% this year off a low base – it shrank -7% during the worst of the COVID pandemic – and will return to pre-pandemic levels only in 2023. And inflation has unexpectedly heated up, to 4.4% YoY for the month of April, which if the trend continues could well provoke the Reserve Bank to increase the repo rate by 25 points in November and even more early next year. In the meantime, the international ratings agencies, while full of caveats and provisos, seem inclined to take a more forgiving view of our travails, predicting modest growth in the next few years.

Comment: As a world and a country where COVID is under control becomes visible, it seems we are recovering more quickly than would once have seemed possible. And this great industry we call home is leading the way.