Star 2023-02-01

DESPITE Shoprite delivering double-digit first half sales growth, its profit margins are under pressure due to load shedding. In an operational update for the six months ended January 1, the country’s largest grocer said to operate generators across its South African supermarkets to trade uninterrupted during Stage 5 and Stage 6 load shedding had amounted to R560 million for the period. But a record Black Friday and festive season boosted the local supermarkets division to achieve sales growth of 17.5% during the period. On a like-for-like basis, Shoprite’s sales increased by more than 11%. This segment, which accounts for just more than 80% of group sales was also able to raise selling prices by 9.4%. “The growth in sales reflects a record Black Friday and festive season, underpinning 46 months…

SOUTH African business leaders have been left divided over the proposal by the governing ANC that the government should declare a national state of disaster at Eskom, in a bid to end the ongoing energy crisis. This comes as the struggling power utility has forecast a two-year period, in which it would be able to return its generating capacity back to acceptable levels above 70% from the current lows of 53%. President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday said there was clear direction from the ANC national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla that the government must resolve the immediate task of load shedding within a much shorter time-frame than what has been projected. The Disaster Management Act of 2002 assigns various powers and duties to the national disaster management centre, allowing the national…

The country’s projected growth more than halves in 2023 to a paltry 1.2% THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed South Africa’s growth forecast for 2023 by more than half, mainly due to the ongoing energy crisis while other sub-Saharan economies are expected to experience moderate growth. In its World Economic Outlook 2023 released yesterday, the IMF showed that growth was projected to remain moderate at 3.8% in 2023 in sub-Saharan Africa amid a prolonged fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a modest upwards revision since October’s projection, before picking up to 4.1% in 2024. “The small upwards revision for 2023 (0.1 percentage point) reflects Nigeria’s rising growth in 2023 due to measures to address insecurity issues in the oil sector,” it said. “In South Africa, by contrast, after…

VODACOM Group lifted revenue 14.8% to R30.7 billion in the three months to December 31, after benefiting from the Vodafone Egypt acquisition, rand depreciation and continuing fast growth in financial services. The cellphone operator said group service revenue was up 16.1% in the third quarter of its financial year, with normalised growth of 3.5% supported by growth in data revenue and financial services. Service revenue in South Africa grew 3% to R15.39bn following a strong performance in mobile prepaid. International service revenue increased 18% to R6.98, driven by data revenue growth and a weaker rand. Financial services revenue increased 30.6% to R2.6bn, with VodaPay app downloads reaching 4.5 million. Vodafone Egypt was consolidated from December 8, 2022, and R1.88bn in revenue was reflected. Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said the acquisition…

THE DEPARTMENT of Health has tabled the new tobacco bill in Parliament which introduces onerous restrictions and will force many small and micro businesses to close, placing them and their employees at risk. This was according to Diane Bravo, owner of specialist tobacco retailer Casa Tabacs. Bravo also owned Sturks, the oldest tobacco store in South Africa, established in 1793, which she had to shut down as a result of the government’s Covid-related tobacco ban. Her warning follows hard on the heels of the announcement two weeks ago that British American Tobacco (BAT) South Africa had begun consultations that might involve cutting up to 200 skilled jobs, due to ongoing losses in cigarette volumes. The company blamed this on the illicit cigarette trade that exploded during the Covid-related ban on…

ORION Minerals managing director and CEO Errol Smart said yesterday: “I believe Orion is now well on its way to achieving its goal of unlocking the incredible base metals potential in the Northern Cape.” In its quarterly update released yesterday, the group said it made significant progress in the quarter, finishing the year with a series of important funding. Key achievements during the December quarter included securing a funding package to progress pre- development activities at the Prieska copper-zinc project “and the completion of permitting and early-stage funding for our second base metals hub at the Okiep Copper Project”. These milestone funding arrangements also saw the introduction of the Industrial Development Corporation as a new development partner at Okiep, Smart said. “The combined pre-development funding being provided by Triple Flag…