Four car giveaways were held on 2 June 2018, at participating stores Food Town Hyper Rustenburg, Food Town Thlabane, Food Town Hyper Vryburg and Food Town Khayelitsha. The campaign was initialized with an SMS campaign to let consumers know about the competition. A fifth giveaway took place at Food Town Savemoor on 4 August 2018. The vehicles gave participating suppliers an excellent opportunity to market their brands, while excitement on the day was intensified with spot prizes, a DJ at each store and a multitude of participating supplier activities. Five lucky entrants were drawn at random on the day from all the entry tickets received, and each one was given a key. The key that opened the car was the grand prize winner, but there were also many runner-up prizes to keep the smiles going.

The Save-a-Lot World Cup Soccer campaign ran during the month of July 2018, to tie in with the duration of the FIFA World Cup™. These instore events took place at all Save-a-Lot stores in the form of a consumer competition. Each store received 60 prizes of soccer balls and soccer jerseys. To enter, consumers had to buy one of 20 participating supplier products and two winners were announced each day.

For this day of giving back to the community, the first 100 shoppers over the age of 67 at every Save-a-Lot store received a free hamper worth R150

We ran soup kitchens at each store. The poverty, levels of hunger and deprivation that we see in so many of our communities is heart-breaking, and a cup of warm, nourishing soup with fresh bread will at least take the edge off somebody’s hunger for a little while.

Groups from the community were invited to enter this charity-focused event by submitting recipes to Food Town Khayelitsha. The store then selected the best five recipes. The groups that sent in these recipes were invited to take part in a cooking challenge, with ingredients and utensils supplied by the sponsoring supplier. The group that won the cooking challenge was invited to prepare a gourmet pot of food to donate to a charity organisation of their choice. The Charity Cook-Off Challenge is being rolled out to all stores during the remainder of this year.

Transito Cash & Carry in Welkom held a Cook-Off that culminated in teams from three schools in the area making it to the finals on 8 November 2019. The teams were each given 6 x Bloukruin eggs; a few blocks of cheese; 500g UNITY Macaroni; Atties Shoulder Pork Chops; a tin of UNITY Tomato Puree; 1 x Rama Brick; 2 sachets Hinds Cayenne Pepper; and salt. The teams and dishes were judged on taste, timing, plating, hygiene, teamwork and preparation. First place went to Makgotso Pre-School, second place to Mamohau Pre-School and third to Reahola Edu-Care. A wonderful day was had by all, with community bonds being forged along the way.

On 9 August 2018, every woman who purchased at any Save-a-Lot store received a gift in the form of a mini slab of chocolate or hamper. This event was very well received by the community

A trolley dash for Nelson Mandela Day was held on 21 July 2018 at Powertrade Three Star. Customers ran a trolley for their nominated charity and the top three also won a R500 voucher for themselves. Three charities – Lebone Women Empowerment, Staan Saam and Grace of God Old Age Home – received the items collected in the trolleys.

TROLLEY DASHES FOR STUFF

Staff incentives are good for productivity and morale! With this in mind, a number of internal Trolley Dashes for store staff took place during the last quarter. Each store set their own incentive criteria and trolley value

As part of their Community Responsibility, Miss Rustenburg contestants are required to assist with a Feeding Scheme at Laerskool David Brink, which is situated close to Powertrade Three Star in Rustenburg. The contestants visited the school on 14 August 2018, and there will be another visit again in October. Powertrade Three Star donated items for hotdogs for the day.

Save-a-Lot has implemented in-store radio in four of its stores so far – Food Town Hyper Rustenburg, Three Star Powertrade, Food Town Thlabane and Food Town Savemoor. Pre-recorded audio incorporates the latest promotions, commentary and music in a four-hour loop, played through the PA system. It creates great energy and atmosphere in the store. Suppliers also have an opportunity to advertise on the looped audio.

Every Friday from 12h05 – 13h00, we host a radio talk show on Radio Zibonele, a Khayelitsha community radio station. A guest supplier is invited onto the show and is afforded the platform to promote their brands. Listeners are invited to phone in and answer questions stemming from the discussion during the talk show. 10 lucky winners receive a hamper of the supplier’s products ,which must be collected at Food Town Khayelitsha. In the 4 weeks that the show has been running, the community response has been phenomenal. In addition, the guest supplier receives 10 x 30-second advertising slots on the station during the week of their participation.

Save-a-Lot Trader’s Days, which have been successfully implemented and are now running at all Powertrade stores, feature a red hot price promotion with 20 products at killer prices for two days. The stores send out the promotion via WhatsApp to all traders on their database and implement a number of in-store activities to create excitement during the promotion.

The relaunch of UNITY took place in September 2018. Save-a-Lot Marketing  together with UMS National Marketing had worked tirelessly to develop the exciting new UNITY range. The relaunch saw UNITY in new packaging and with a revamped logo.

As part of the relaunch, we ran an incentive campaign at Save-a-Lot stores.

Our latest UNITY promotion, held as part of our continued drive to increase awareness of the brand, ran from 1 May to 31 July 2019. There were hampers worth R250 to be won and the campaign made use of social media to spread the message.

UNITY Milk launches: UNITY UHT Milk launched to the market in October 2019, with in-store displays promoting the new product. Much work has gone into this new addition to the UNITY range and we are fully committed to its long-term sustainability and success.

It was also UNITY’s 1st birthday since the range relaunched in October 2018, and to celebrate, each UMS Division office received R500 from UNITY to purchase a gigantic cake made for the staff. Every celebration needs a cake

Heritage Day 2018 was celebrated on the 24th of September at all Save-a-Lot stores. Store Stuff were invited to dress in traditional attire. Our roving judges decided on winners who each won a hamper of products. Customers on that day were also treated to boerewors rolls.

There was much excitement and laughter as our roving judges took photos and chose the best dressed, who won hampers for their efforts. There were also boerewors rolls for customers, with some burly men taking on the role of cooks for the day.

Heritage Day on 24 September 2019. Store staff dressed up in their finest and there was much fun and laughter. In addition, any customer who purchased over a certain limit (set by each store) qualified for a free boerewors roll.

Eight extremely well-attended stokvel parties were hosted during the last quarter of 2019, at Food Town Hyper Khayelitsha; Transito Cash & Carry Welkom; Kuruman Cash & Carry; Food Town Hyper Vryburg; Three Star Cash & Carry Rustenburg; Food Town Hyper; Savemoor; and Trade Value Cash & Carry PE. Two Rustenburg stores – Food Town Hyper Rustenburg and Food Town Hyper Tlhabane – joined forces to host a combined event at the Food Town Hyper Rustenburg store. Suppliers were invited to set up stands where they could present their products and give away hampers and samples. Around 12 500 stokvel club members attended the invite-only events.

Nine stokvel parties took place during Sept and Oct 2018. These were at Food Town Savemoor (8 Sept); Powertrade Three Star (15 Sept); Powertrade Kuruman (21 Sept); Powertrade Vryburg Cash & Carry (22 Sept); Food Town Hyper Rustenburg and Food Town Thlabane (6 Oct); Powertrade Transito (13 Oct); Powertrade Trade Value (20 Oct); and Food Town Khayelitsha (27 Oct). Each event was followed up with targeted messaging to the stokvels that attended, encouraging the clubs to come and buy their stock at the store.
12000 stokvel members are invited to our events annually.

The idea behind the Graffiti Wall is to give suppliers an opportunity to sponsor a panel of a precast wall in a community. Children in the community then draw a supplier’s name out of a hat.

The first of these events took place at Food Town Khayelitsha on 10 November 2018 and as you can see from the pics, there was intense concentration and much fun. Some of the finished artworks were incredibly good. The Graffiti Wall campaign gives children in a community an opportunity to win a bursary, through a creative initiative that also gives suppliers branding exposure. Suppliers are given an opportunity to sponsor a panel of a precast wall. The children in the community then draw a supplier’s name out of a hat. Their task is to paint the supplier’s logo and brand on the wall, with the best one in each community winning a bursary.

The Graffiti Wall campaign is coming up at Food Town Hyper in Vryburg, where children in the community have an opportunity to win a bursary, through a creative initiative that also gives suppliers branding exposure. Suppliers can sponsor a panel of a precast wall and children in the community then draw a supplier’s name out of a hat. Their task is to paint the supplier’s logo and brand on the wall, with the best one in each community winning a bursary.

• The Save-a-Lot Loyalty Card will be launching in early 2019. Rands spent = points earned, which can be redeemed at Save-a-Lot stores and our partner outlets. Customers earn points from every rand spent instore. Watch this space for more details!

The Bakkie Bonanza ‘pre-owned bakkie giveaways’ campaign continues to create buzz and excitement in Save-A-Lot stores.

In the 4th quarter of 2018, we’ve had events taking place at Powertrade Transito, Powertrade Vryburg Cash & Carry and Powertrade Three Star, as well as a second bakkie giveaway event at Food Town Hyper Khayelitsha. We make sure the store’s trader customers know about the competition through in-store displays, newspaper advertising, leaflets and social media.

This promotion is targeted at traders, who have to buy any 2 of the promoted products, as well as a basket to a specific value, in order to enter. Bakkie Bonanza will continue to be a feature in our marketing programme for 2019.

This campaign features a printed colouring book with supplier-sponsored pages. 100 000 books will be printed and distributed to children in the community. The child colours in the pages and submits to their local Save-a-Lot store to stand a chance to win a bursary to the value of R15 000.

Our Black Friday promotion ran on 23 November and 30 November 2018, with amazing combo deals on both days that had shoppers reaching for more

Our exciting Miss Save-a-Lot beauty pageant will be coming up in March 2019. Young women between the ages of 16 – 24 can enter and the first event will take place on 2 March 2019 at Food Town Tlhabane.

To enter, participants must purchase at least 3 supplier-sponsored products in order to obtain an entry form. They will then be required to attached 2 x full length colour photos of themselves, one in evening dress and one in a bathing costume, and place it in the competition entry box before 31 January 2019. 12 finalists will be selected from the photos submitted. Each finalist will receive a vanity case filled with products from participating sponsors, a bathing costume, a R500 grocery voucher and hair styling on the day of the event. The second princess receives R1 000, the first princess R2 000 and the winner receives R5 000.

Power Up and Win, which is a UMS Northern Division promotion, took place during the last week of January and first week of February 2019. Food Town Savemoor, Powertrade Three Star, Food Town Hyper Rustenburg and Powertrade Vryburg Cash & Carry were among the stores showcasing this promotion.

The UMS Northern Division’s Power Up and Win and the Save-a-Lot Win-a-Car promotions kicked once more in November 2019. Both promotions ran through the festive season in December 2019 and Jan/Feb 2020.

Our Health and Wellness Clinics are building trust in their communities, as residents get to know about the services available.

We now have seven Health and Wellness Clinics in operation, located at Rustenburg Food Town Hyper, Three Star Powertrade Rustenburg, Savemoor Food Town Hyper in Springs; Transito Cash & Carry Powertrade in Welkom; and Khayelitsha Food Town Hyper. Two more clinics – one at Vryburg Food Town Hyper and the other at Kuruman Cash & Carry Powertrade – will also be opening soon.

Community uptake at the Food Town Hyper Savemoor clinic has been very good, with the clinic staff attending to over 70 people daily. Meanwhile the clinic at Food Town Hyper Tlhabane was repositioned for greater visibility and easier access, which has encouraged community members to take advantage of their services. The clinic at Three Star in Rustenburg is also doing well. Various NGOs have come on board to run the clinics – Progressive Primary Healthcare is at Transito in Welkom; while Hospice manages the clinics at Savemoor; Tlhabane; and Three Star. Clinic services include HIV Counselling and Testing; Gender-Based Violence Counselling; Chronic Illness Screening; TB Screening; STI Screening; Referrals for the treatment of HIV, Chronic Illnesses, TB and STIs; Gender-Based Violence interventions; and Nutrition Advice. Each unit is fitted out with tiled floors, a small waiting room and all the necessary equipment for the nurses to provide professional services.

The services on offer include HIV Counselling and Testing; Gender-Based Violence Counselling; Chronic Illness Screening; TB Screening; STI Screening; Referrals for the treatment of HIV, Chronic Illnesses, TB and STIs; Gender-Based Violence interventions; and Nutrition Advice. The clinics are fitted out with clean, tiled floors, a small waiting room and all the necessary equipment for the nurses to offer a professional service.

The clinics also provide nutrition advice. Emthonjeni is a community-based organisation based in Khayelitsha. They also work nationally and have global projects targeting SA communities.

It is led by women and specialises in the empowerment of women. They specialise in engaging communities on HIV prevention research, especially for groups that are vulnerable to HIV.

They also partner with men’s organisations for critical matters to address issues such as of gender-based violence.

In our Back to School promotion, which begins on 27 December 2018, we’ll be giving away 10 school uniforms valued at R500 each per store. Back to School will also incorporate our colouring book campaign, which features a printed colouring book with supplier-sponsored pages. 100 000 books will be printed and distributed to children in the community via our Food Town outlets. The child colours in the pages and submits to their local Save-a-Lot store to stand a chance to win a bursary to the value of R15 000.
Health

Digital communication has become an important part of our marketing strategy, as we increasingly find that WhatsApp and Facebook reach more and more consumers in our market. While traditional media – newspapers and printed leaflets – are still a big part of how we reach our customers, we’re really starting to see the power of social media in our market. It is important that we stay on top of developing trends such as these, in order to effectively communicate with our shopper base.

Save-a-Lot Car Giveaways will also run in early 2019, at Food Town Thlabane and Food Town Khayelitsha

The Win-a-Home Promotion started on 24 June 2019 and continues until the end of September 2019, with one home per store to be won.

11 houses where won in Sept 2019

Shoppers needed to purchase 5 products from any of the 11 participating suppliers, fill in their entry form and place it in the competition entry box to stand a chance of winning the house. Each home is a fully insulated, well constructed unit measuring 3m x 4.2m, with raised floors when assembled and manufactured in kit format.

Winners had the option of choosing a fully-insulated, kit-format home with a gas stove, bed and couch, or building materials to the value of R50 000.

Community involvement and empowerment continue to take priority with our Win-a-Spaza campaign. Ten fully-stocked, kitted out containers complete with refrigerator, till point and shelving will give each winner a ready-to-trade spaza shop worth R150 000.
The shops will be branded Big Deal Express and herald the launch of this new trading format for our group.
The containers will be transported to each winner’s location of choice and the Save-a-Lot team will help the winners get going in their new business, with postcampaign assistance and advice.

The 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan from 20 Sept to 2 November 2019 was a highlight for all of us, with our boys winning the cup in superb style! We couldn’t be prouder! Our stores supported the Springboks on their world cup journey with various promotions leading up to the final. And what a final it was!

This promotion was implemented at all Save-a-Lot stores from 25 Sept 2019 to 22 Oct 2019. Each store gave away 5 x R100 birthday vouchers daily. Shoppers were alerted to the activity by a bell that was rung at random times during the day. One of the checkout numbers was called out, and the shopper who had just paid for their purchases at that till received the voucher. The promotion took place in two phases from 25 Sept to 7 Oct and 10-22 October, with different specials keeping it alive and fresh for the 4-week period.