Always a safe bet
[Shannon Sherry] Procter & Gamble took a long-term look and decided to invest in South Africa 13 years ago, but…

StoreXperience: A mobile bridge between bricks, clicks
[Andrew K. Burger] Retailers in Japan and South Korea have been using image capture technology for several years now, and with the growing base of smartphones, companies in the US are rolling out a wide range of new mobile applications, including some that use interactive digital symbols captured in photos to provide customers with product information, prices and incentives on the spot.

Rates weigh heavily on retail sales
[Thabang Mokopanele, Trade and Industry Reporter] Higher interest rates are still hampering retail sales; January's figures have shown only a modest growth over the same month last year.

Retail sector 'could slide into recession'
[Mariam Isa, Economics Editor] The retail sector is in trouble, with consumer confidence at its lowest in years and consumers facing higher living costs on almost every front.

German retailer Metro puts Kaufhof stores on sale
German group Metro is set for a big shake-up after its plans to sell its Kaufhof department stores and restructure the Real supermarket chain.

Demand drives boost in whisky production
Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard, is to increase its operations facilities in Speyside by expanding Glenlivet Distillery and re-opening Braeval Distillery. These expansion plans come in the wake of a global increase in demand for the company's Scotch whisky brands.

Uniprint wins a bronze
On the evening of March 19, at the POPAI awards ceremony in Chicago IL, Uniprint won a bronze award in the Temporary division / Health Care category for their Kotex floor stand, which they produced for Kimberly Clark SA. POPAI's Outstanding Merchandising Achievement (OMA) Award is the premier award for recognizing the most innovative and effective in-store and at-retail displays. Entrants compete each year for gold, silver and bronze honours. Scores are based on the display's ability to increase sales, obtain retail placements and work strategically to position the brand at the point of sale. This is the industry's largest and longest running awards contest.


Celebrating first in Top 500
Compass Group SA has been rated the number one Catering Services Company by Top 500: South Africa's Best Companies magazine – for the second year in a row. Top 500 - South Africa's Best Companies is a prestigious South African publication researching over 5,000 listed and unlisted companies, analysing their performance data against a stringent set of criteria to identify South Africa's Best Managed Companies.

Food, petrol prices cause for inflation hike
[Bathandwa Mbola] The increases in the prices of food and petroleum are important drivers of inflation. According to the South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) quarterly bulletin released on Wednesday, 19 March, food prices recorded double digit rates of increase, with the price of petrol also stocking inflation.

Help stop TB
[ActivRetail] World TB Day was yesterday, March 24, 2008, and the slogan for this year was ‘I Am Stopping TB'. The day was also the start of a two-year campaign involving people around the world to stop TB. One of South Africa's leading retail pharmacy groups, Clicks, believes that everyone can do something to stop the disease, and initiated its own program.

Rhône-style wines to tempt your palate
Zonnebloem, one of South Africa's most enduring wine brands, has expanded its popular range with two new Rhône-style wines.


Johannesburg scores well in world-wide environmental study
Johannesburg is the only African city to feature in the MasterCard ‘Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index'.

SA's General Mills gets new captain
Craig Leathwhite has been appointed managing director of the South African operation of General Mills, the world's sixth-largest food company – but he's not giving up his bike!


Mazda2 is the South African Car of the Year
The Mazda2 Individual has beaten the cream of the world's best to win the coveted title of the South African Car of the Year.


Cashbuild proves that cash is still king
Cashbuild is reaping the rewards of staying away from risky credit offerings and selling to lower-income South Africans who are unaffected by rising interest rates.

eBay starts own affiliate program
[Keith Regan] In a bid to cut out the middleman and drive its own Web traffic, eBay said Monday, 17 March, it would launch a partner network that will replace affiliate relationships the auction site has long relied on to get users to its site.

Cosmetics brand renews mall contract
[ActivRetail] After a successful partnership three years in the making, leading cosmetic brand, Clinique has renewed its contract for another year with in-mall advertisers Primall Media.


CashBuild share jumps on results
[Nicole Rego] Controlled approach governs plans to open eight to 10 new stores between January and June this year.

It's that bunny time of the year again
With Easter time just a few sleeps away, Cadbury has a new Easter range for you.


New varieties boost speciality teas
Five Roses range of specialty teas is to be boosted with the launch of a number of new variants, as well as new pack sizes. Spiced Chai, Grapefruit & Lavender, as well as Green Tea Lemon & Lime and Green Tea & Jasmine join the existing range of Green Tea, Earl Grey, Orange, Lemon, Cherry, Honey & Rooibos and Chamomile. Lemon and Green Tea are the two most popular variants and are now available in both 20's and 50's pack sizes.

Blu-ray shines on sales
[Walaika Haskins] Consumers sent the video game hardware and software industry a US$1.33 billion valentine for the month of February, a 34% increase over sales during the same time period in 2007, according to figures released by the NPD Group, an independent market research firm.

Film festival gets new sponsor
Amarula has announced its headline sponsorship of the upcoming Africa On Screen Film Festival. Africa On Screen will take place from May 23-29 to coincide with Africa Day and will be held at Cinema Nouveau Rosebank, Cinema Nouveau Cavendish Square, The Junction at Maponya Mall in Soweto, and with free screenings at Museum Africa in Newtown. Developed and produced by Red Flag Marketing and Design, the festival enjoys the support of a number of partners such as the French Embassy, Museum Africa, Ster Kinekor and others.

Spicing up restaurant reviews with web videos
About a year ago, "Check, Please!" President Tim Bahr approached David Manilow, its founder and chief executive, with the idea of doing "Check, Please!" on the Net. "I saw the TV show's production format fitting very well with major trends in media -- the move away from consumer reliance on experts and professional reviewers to getting information from real people," says Bahr.

Brand advertising on game sites performs best with women over 45
According to a recent newsletter from Dynamic Logic, analysis from their MarketNorm database shows that consumer product advertisements on gaming sites tend to perform much better among women ages 45+ compared with younger females. And this is not a small audience, says the report...

Older internet users feel web advertising and content not relevant
A recent BurstMedia survey of more than 13,000 web users 18 years and older found that online content providers are not meeting the needs of all age segments. A majority of Internet users 45 years and older believe online content is focused on younger age segments.

Saturating the East Rand's formal shopping centres
[ActivRetail] The economically active commuter market living in Etwatwa/Daveyton, situated on Johannesburg's East Rand, sometimes travel as far as Sandton or Cresta to spend their disposable income at their favourite shopping centre, even though many of these residents have to travel by taxi to get there.

Personalised marketing preferred; execution lagging
In 2006, the Chief Marketing Officer Council found over 26% of executives pointed to a lack of data and systems integration that prevented their organisation from achieving the optimal level of customer insight and intimacy. The current CMO Council's 2008 Marketing Outlook study still finds that only two of the top five solution investments for the year are CRM tools and customer analytics.

Convenience consumer goods packaging seen as dispensable
While New Zealanders top global rankings as the nation most prepared to give up all packaging aspects for the sake of the environment, less than half of Asian consumers would be willing to give up these types of convenience packaging.

New agreement maximises SA, Ethiopia trade
[Michael Appel] South Africa and Ethiopia are to maximise trade and capacity between the two countries through the Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement which was signed on Tuesday, 18 March 2008.

Surf's up!
[ActivRetail] Nampak Cartons & Labels helped Surf extend its consumer ‘proof of whiteness' promotion by incorporating the novelty test card on all 1kg packs of Surf Superblue.

Hostex heads to the coast
Hostex, South Africa's Hospitality and Catering Exhibition, will be hitting Durban shores for the first time this year. The 2008 show will be taking place from 28 - 30 May at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) and at the Durban Exhibition Centre from 8 - 10 September.

Court rules against abalone fishing
The Cape Town High Court has ruled against the South African Abalone Industry Association which had sought to overturn government's decision to suspend fishing in the commercial abalone industry.

The electronic invoicing renaissance
[Shan Haq] Virtual printer technology is driving an electronic invoicing rebirth within many industries. It's a new, innovative approach to on-boarding vendors. Vendors simply download the virtual printer off the Web. This takes about 30 minutes. Unlike electronic data interchange, there is no upfront cost or IT resource requirement.

Filtering out biased customer reviews
[Brian Bergstein] One of the great things about the Internet is the way people post reviews on just about anything you're considering trying, whether it's a movie, a new restaurant or the local florist.

Act fast, time is ticking by... - Quo Vadis Communications
There are only a few places left for Quo Vadis Communications' highly regarded Organisational Communications course in Johannesburg during April and May 2008.

Nothing shady about our parasols - Right Stuff
There is clearly an unrelenting demand for umbrellas in the commercial sector, as can be clearly seen in their extensive use at outdoor cafés, beaches and sporting events. It therefore comes as no surprise that we offer a product which not only exceeds the expectations of our clients, but also fulfils the urgent need for value for money.

Training your sights on online fraud
[Carol Baroudi] Fraud is big business. Well-funded, well-orchestrated, sophisticated fraud rings aggressively change tactics and invent new technologies to cash in on the unprotected assets awaiting plunder.

Fraud, chargebacks and your bottom line
[Gene Hoffman Jr.] Think combating fraud is not of paramount concern to online merchants? The topic was front and centre at the Merchant Risk Council's annual conference held in early March. Online merchants gathered there were eager to get a deeper level of understanding of how better to combat fraud - fraudulent chargebacks chief among their worries.

R15mil injection to revive goat industry
[Gabi Khumalo] The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has given the Northern Cape goat farming industry a R15 million financial injection to transform herders into commercial farmers.

SA to get R1.5mil bio-fuels plant
[Bathandwa Mbola] The agro-processing industry in the country received a major boost with the announcement of an R1.5 billion bio-fuels processing plant, making it the largest soybean processing facility in Africa.

Will Apple open an iTunes buffet?
[Walaika Haskins] Apple is reportedly negotiating with its recording label partners to offer iPod and iPhone users an all-you-can-listen plan for the life of the device.

Stats SA reaps BI rewards
Statistics SA, the official statistical body of South Africa, is expanding its SAS 9 Enterprise Intelligence Platform (EIP) initiatives across the entire organisation following the successful implementation and migration to SAS 9 from SAS 8 last year.

SA fax-to-email service launches into UK market
Integr8 FAX, an electronic transmission provider within the telephony market and associate of the Integr8 Group, has formally placed its infrastructure platform into a host of UK data centres to meet a demand for reliable, cost-effective fax to email transmissions in the United Kingdom.


HP vs. Acer vs. Apple: The fight to come
[Rob Enderle] Over the last two weeks, I attended a huge HP lab event, watched Apple launch the iPhone SDK brilliantly, and saw one of the strongest consumer laptop lines launched by Acer. All three vendors are growing in the 30% range in the PC market; Acer just passed Dell for the no.2 spot in the notebook market; and all three vendors have smartphone efforts in their infancy.