The implications for suppliers of the spread of supermarkets in southern Africa

Figures & data

Table 1. Type and number of stakeholders interviewed in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Respondent type	Number of stakeholders interviewed
	South Africa	Zambia	Zimbabwe	Botswana	Total
Retailers/supermarkets	7	6	2	1	16
Wholesalers, buying groups and distribution agents	8			3	11
Government departments and competition authorities		2	2	1	5
Industry experts, stakeholders and associations	2	3	10		15
Suppliers by sector
Dairy	2	9	1		12
Poultry, eggs and meat	3	7		3	13
Milling and bakery	4	28	1	2	35
Fresh produce and processed food	4	24			28
Soaps and detergents	3	12		1	16
Manufactured beverages and drinks		19	1		20
Total respondents	33	110	17	11	171

Note: Given that many of the South African chains operate in the selected countries, interviews with these chains in South Africa also provided insights on operations in other countries.

Figure 1. Critical success factors – perspectives of suppliers. Source: Supplier interviews, 2015 and 2016. South Africa N = 11; Botswana: N = 5; Zambia: N = 48; Zimbabwe: N = 15.

Note: Not all of = the suppliers interviewed provided answers for every question. In the case of Zambia, distance to supermarket is used as a proxy for location. Scale: 1 = not important; 5 = very important.

Table 2. Determinants of local supplier participation in supermarket value chains in Zambia.

Variable	Coefficient	Robust Std. Err.	Z	p value
Constant	−1.966953	1.244205	−1.58	0.114
Turnover	0.0014183	0.0869493	0.02	0.987
Possession of a barcode	1.671103	0.3844063	4.35	0.000*
Improved packaging	−0.3833772	0.3736645	−1.03	0.305
Accredited to ZABS	−0.1377651	0.4276549	−0.32	0.747
Distance to nearest supermarket	−0.0247078	0.0149043	−1.66	0.097**
Foreign ownership	−0.0359864	0.3824747	−0.09	0.925
Membership of association	0.127736	0.4105323	0.31	0.756
Number of years of operation	0.0073323	0.0180595	0.41	0.685
CEO’s years of experience	−0.0144431	0.0179568	−0.8	0.421
Investment in machinery	1.029162	0.4841402	2.13	0.034**
Number of observations = 74
Wald chi square (10) = 31.22
Prob. > chi square = 0.0005
Pseudo R^2 = 0.3482

*5% significance level;

**10% significance level.

Source of data: Interviews with suppliers.