Recession or no recession, drinkers of Scotch whisky all over the world enjoyed their favourite tipple last year. According to figures released by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), sales rose in almost every export market including France, despite the excellence of French cognac, and fell only in Venezuela, Spain and Greece.
In South Africa we make our own whisky, which connoisseurs pronounce excellent. But in spite of that, total shipments to Africa rose by 41 percent to £213 million (R2.3 billion) and, according to the SWA, “exports to South Africa account for nearly 80 percent of shipments to the region. Scotch whisky enjoyed another good year in South Africa, with shipments up by 56 percent to £169 million.”
We were in fifth place in the top 10 export markets, behind the US, France, Spain and Singapore. According to the SWA, last year was a record one for Scotch whisky exports, contributing £109 a second to the UK’s foreign exchange earnings.
Global exports increased for the sixth consecutive year and are now 60 percent higher in value than in 2000.
And despite the recession, whisky drinkers piled into the premium brands.
Exports of single malt whiskies, from individual distilleries in the Scottish Highlands, increased by 18 percent to £57m and blended whiskies by 5 percent to £2.6bn.
A while ago when the balance of trade between the UK and Japan was drastically skewed in the favour of the Japanese, a senior official was asked if there was not just one UK product that his country wanted more of. “Yes,” he replied. “We love your whisky very much.”
Inspired by this, maybe we should redouble our efforts to increase the exports of our own premium wines and liqueurs, which are already our most successful agricultural exports, or invent a superb new drink altogether.
KwaZulu-Natal
Last week, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize announced that 909 employees were subject to disciplinary action.
The cases relate to fraud, theft, social grant misconduct, misuse of state property, insubordination, absenteeism, sexual harassment, being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and assault.
In a statement to the media, Mkhize proudly said he was confident that his government was winning the fight against fraud, corruption and maladministration – a bit premature to celebrate simply on the basis of these civil servants being charged and not because they have been found guilty.
There are 331 disciplinary cases that have taken more than three months to finalise. Mkhize’s statement said these were some of the cases that were carried forward from each quarter. The prescribed period to conclude a case is three months.
Delays have been attributed to investigation process, appointments of employer representatives and chairpersons, the complexity of cases and sometimes cost-cutting measures.
The government is implementing a number of measures to minimise the delays such as effective training of managers, prioritisation of disciplinary matters by heads of departments and senior management and the filling of labour relations posts. The statement also said cost-cutting measures affecting certain cases, particularly those in distant areas where cases have to be heard over a few days, were being reviewed.
A media report last week said only 88 of the employees had been suspended and none were facing civil or criminal action. In cases where money was stolen, R5.5m is involved. The Department of Health accounts for the most cases with 556, followed by the Department of Education with 443.
Obviously, the action should be applauded and the intention is good. But it sounds more like vote speak to be claiming victory before the cases are finalised.
I&J
Irvin & Johnson – better known as I&J – has run into a spot of bother over frozen fish and now has to pull one of its products from all retailers countrywide.
This comes after Sea Harvest, which produces Oven Crisp, and has done so for 20 years, objected in court to I&J’s Oven Crunch, which was launched last month, because of how similar it looks to its product.
Oven Crunch’s close resemblance to Sea Harvest’s Oven Crisp has now landed I&J in a pickle, with the court ruling against the latter. Given that Oven Crunch – with a blue box, yellow writing and a very similar name – looks deceptively like Oven Crisp, we wonder what I&J was thinking when it decided to launch this product.
After all, it now has the hassle and cost of pulling the product from stores after incurring the expense of developing the branding and marketing of it.
Sea Harvest seems certain that the intention was to confuse consumers into buying I&J’s product rather than Sea Harvest’s product.
It was shocked to find that the packaging of the Oven Crunch product appeared to be confusingly similar to its own Oven Crisp packaging, which it considered to be a clear attempt to latch on to the repute and goodwill that Sea Harvest had built up over the past 20 years in its Oven Crisp range.
Now I&J is under pressure to remove its product from hundreds of retailers across the country.
The court on Friday said the product, which retails for about R33 a box, had to be removed “immediately”, but yesterday Oven Crunch products were still readily available in the Johannesburg city centre.
I&J, which intends to relaunch the product with new packaging, said: “We remain of the opinion that the several differences between our pack and that of the competitor are sufficient for consumers to make an informed decision.”
Unfortunately for them the court disagreed. page 3
Edited by Peter DeIonno. With contributions by Audrey D’Angelo, Slindile Khanyile and Samantha Enslin-Payne.