Industry Developments

Carrefour and the UAE-based Majid al-Futtaim (MAF), its exclusive franchise partner in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), have developed a strong partnership over the years. Carrefour... 2011-06-16

Consumer confidence in South Africa has definitely improved over the past year. Retail is coming back nicely and people are generally spending more freely, well reflected by the fact... 2011-06-13

Saudi Arabia's Almarai has probably been the star performer in the Gulf food and drink universe over the past few years - generating some of the fastest growth in the Middle East and... 2011-06-10

Ghana has a lot of things going for it. Our Africa team expects it to be a major economic outperformer over the coming years on both a regional and global level - a view that looks... 2011-06-09

Following dollarisation in 2009, retail in Zimbabwe has come back strongly, with shelves filling up and consumer spending returning to some degree of normality after shoppers mostly... 2011-06-08

Wal-Mart's entry into South Africa is going to have major implications for the food retail industry. With annual sales of about US$421bn, Wal-Mart is an absolute colossus. It is nearly... 2011-06-07

There is still plenty of room for growth in food retail in the UAE, where in spite of tremendous wealth appreciation over the past decade a lot of people still shop at independent stores.... 2011-06-06

The East African cross-shareholding battle lines drawn up by Diageo and SABMiller in 2002 are being broken down. Initially triggered by Diageo's desire to go down the independent route... 2011-06-06

South Africa's Tiger Brands has reported a mere 1% year-on-year (y-o-y) H1 revenue growth to March 2010, proving caution to be very much the order of the day in South Africa, with unemployment... 2011-06-03

A Coca-Cola bottling plant is coming to Somaliland. Although its sovereignty is not officially recognised internationally, Somaliland is generally regarded as being much safer than... 2011-06-02