Last week we looked at the consumer goods counters on the Zimbabwe Stock exchange. This week we will outline the consumer services counters on the ZSE. The distinction between the two classifications is simply whether they are a producer or manufacturer of goods or simply providing goods and/or services. That is the general rule but there are always exceptions as we will see. 7 counters on the ZSE are classified as being consumer services counters.
African Sun
African Sun is a tourism and hospitality operator established in 1968. It recently acquired Dawn Properties which managed the properties under African Sun. Among the hotels managed by African Sun are Holiday Inns, Elephant Hills, Troutbeck, Monomutapa and the Kingdom at Victoria Falls.
Ariston
Aniston is a diversified holding group that does business in agriculture. This is one of those exceptions to the rule I mentioned. Where Ariston is involved in production it is in a capacity of managing estates. They are popular for tea, macadamia nuts, fruits, fish and beef among other produce. Favoured on the ZSE because of its large export revenue Ariston has performed well.
Edgars
Edgar’s Zimbabwe was recently unbundled from EdCon Group South Africa to become a standalone entity. They are a clothing and luxury retailer. They have been through tough times with competition from imported clothing, the EdCon pull out, management shakeup and rights issue that was underwhelming. They have bet big on WhatsApp based shopping which looks to be yielding results.
OK Zimbabwe
OK Zimbabwe is one of the largest retailers in the nation. Covering the country with a network of 61 outlets across the OK, OK Mart and Bon Marche brands. The management has continued to show adaptability as they are leaning in on online shopping. The retailer suffered a double blow of reduced business and store closures due to COVID 19.
Rainbow Tourism Group
The Rainbow Tourism Group made quite a splash as they burst into the top 10 shares by market capitalisation earlier in the year. Among their recognisable properties are the Rainbow Towers Hotel, the Rainbow Victoria Falls, the New Ambassador Hotel and the Azambezi River Lodge. RTG sought diversification into online retail when COVID 19 brought business to halt. It is so far hard to tell how successful they have been.
Truworths
Truworths Limited is a fashion retailer that has a network of 64 outlets across the nation. They are responsible for brands such as Topics, Number 1 and Truworths Man and Woman. They have a manufacturing division Bravette. While I’m sure they have been just as affected as Edgar’s by imported clothing it has not made as much of a noise about it.
Zimpapers
Zimpapers Limited for many represents the old dog in the media game as the company responsible for the Herald, Sunday Mail, Chronicle and other such newspapers. However, their forrays into radio in 2012 with Star FM and their journey into digital in 2018 with ZTN have proven to be new tricks by an old dog. They will cap with being awarded a TV licence in 2020 as ZTN. In 2019 Zimpapers reported that 2% of its revenue came from digital and that number is only set to grow.
There are not many counters in this classification and with the threat of more companies leaving the ZSE, this may shrink further.
