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May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 27 2012 11:49
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May 27 2012 11:05
As far as repayments on home loans are concerned, South Africans are in a much more favourable position than their foreign peers.
Pretoria - South African retailers do not make excessive profits and will exert even more pressure on suppliers to keep prices low, said an analyst.
"Supermarkets built their network of shops and brands over many years," said Nedgroup Securities retail analyst Syd Vianello. "One needs a lot of money to operate a supermarket."
He said food inflation may sometimes benefit supermarkets, because they are able to sell products bought at lower prices at a higher margin.
"That's part of the gamble," said Vianello. "It works the other way around when inflation goes down."
He said food inflation is easing at present, putting pressure on retailers' margins. This will force them to exert more pressure on suppliers.
"Supermarkets sell shelf space. They'll dump a product when it doesn't yield a solid return."
Grant Pattison, chairperson of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, said it has never received any complaint from suppliers being bullied by supermarkets.
However, the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) said in May it will ask the minister of agriculture to request an investigation by the Competition Commission into the dominating relationship retailers maintain with their suppliers.
In response, retailing giants Pick n Pay and Shoprite said they will welcome any investigation into uncompetitive behaviour in South Africa's food chain.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.