This was a bumper week for awards celebrating South Africa's most innovative and trailblazing consumer-facing brands. First up, we have all the winners from this year's Pricecheck Tech and E-commerce Awards, where Takealot scooped 4 of the 14 awards, including the coveted E-commerce Service of the Year title.
Then, the country's standout extra virgin olive oils were recognised at the 2018 SA Olive Awards, while the best beers were revealed at this year's South African National Beer Trophy competition, which is the largest beer tasting competition in Africa with 212 entries and more than 20 judges. And finally, the winners of the 2018/2019 Ask Afrika Icon Brands Awards were announced. Icon brands are those that are used loyally by South Africans across the spectrum.
Capping off Women's Month, Danelle van Heerde from Sanlam Personal Finance shares insight into the purchasing power of women, and how they can use it to end the pink tax problem. I interview The Velvet Cake Co.'s Jandri Van Zyl about her business journey building a crowd-pleasing cake-haven, and Juanita Pienaar chats to ethical artistic jeweller Charmaine Taylor about her business that started up-cycling the original fence from Robben Island Prison and turning it into jewellery.
In other news, Danette Breitenbach reports from the launch of Nielsen Smartstore, a digital solution that captures insights in a virtual immersive environment that allows retailers, researchers and brands to build scenarios for the future. And Sea Harvest has diversified with an R527m acquisition in Ladismith Cheese in the Western Cape.
We've also got insight-packed thought leadership from Daniella Shapiro, Higor Torchia, Wynand Smit and Gareth Hawkey.
Lastly, don't forget to those nominations in for the inaugural Faithful to Nature Eco Awards.
Until next week, enjoy!
Lauren Hartzenberg
Retail Editor: Bizcommunity.com
