Participants at the Consumer Goods Forum Global (CGF) Summit held in Cape Town this week have been given a taste of some of the disruption that is changing the consumer goods manufacturing and retail industry.
Christo Wiese, SA’s richest man and the chairman of the nation’s biggest retailer Shoprite, has some advice for companies looking to tap the spending power of Africa’s 1.2-billion consumers: stick around and have deep pockets.
By the end of June, half of all Woolworths stores will have removed sweets and chocolates from the checkout aisle, and replaced them with "better snacking options", says the retailer.
Shoprite chief executive Whitey Basson has thrown down the challenge to retailers not to use the drought gripping South Africa as a reason to increase food prices.
"We are thrilled to be back in the South African market after about 17 years," Jim Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) told Fin24 during his visit to Cape Town.
Retail cannibalisation is becoming a growing reality in South Africa and, until now, it has been all too easy to place the blame for this squarely at the feet of shopping centre developers. However, on closer inspection, Marius Muller, CEO of shopping centre investor Pareto, believes this retail cannibalisation is largely being driven by retailers themselves.
There is no end in sight to the strike at Shoprite’s distribution centre in Centurion, with workers vowing to continue until management meets their demands.
Many South African businesses are effectively giving the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud the middle finger by failing to register with his office‚ while some refuse to co-operate when the office investigates a complaint against them‚ or comply with its rulings.
