Competition Commission data based on annual financial statements of Pick n Pay, Shoprite Holdings, Woolworths Holdings, and Spar Group. Notes: We use self-reported trading margins for Shoprites Supermarkets RSA Division? Pick n Pay is calculated using group trading profit over revenue? Woolworths is calculated using food profit before tax over food revenue? Spar is the self-reported group operating profit margin. But its analysis also shows that profit margins earned by bread and maize meal producers continue to grow in 2023. The report notes that South African producers and retailers were facing other cost pressures, including load shedding, which may explain why there had been a major lag between global prices coming down and consumers seeing the benefit on supermarket shelves. For Sasfin Wealth senior equity analyst Alec Abraham, there two main issues behind why food price inflation was "sticky" and not easing as quickly as global commodities, namely the major costs that retailers and producers were having to outlay on diesel, backup power batteries and solar, as well as the lag effect created by when producers secured some of the inputs for their products. Abraham said another reason why food inflation was stickier was the high fuel price, exacerbated by the stubbornly weak rand because of SA's poor and deteriorating fundamental and government finances. FNB portfolio manager Wayne McCurrie also noted that retailers and producers were taking on more and more costs because of load shedding and some of the input costs they had incurred purchasing goods in advance. McCurrie pointed out that food producers such as Libstar, which released results on Tuesday that showed interim profits falling by half and volumes moving backwards, were battling to "get price increases through to customers to cover their rising costs". Examine the important points of relevance relating to the use of the case study approach in business. Apply appropriate examples to corroborate your