South Africa, Feb. 4 -- Like many business sectors in the country, the South African retail industry is battling the effects of stagnant GDP growth and constrained consumer spending.

Despite these economic challenges, retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers are finding pockets of growth, in part driven by innovative product development and initiatives that promote customer loyalty.

Speaking at the third annual IRI Mini Conference in Cape Town late last year, Liezel Matthee, head of analytics and consulting at IRI, noted that growth across CPG in South Africa has slowed over the last 4 years with only inflationary growth being maintained over the last 2 years.

Growth trends

Reviewing data across 90 categories in the f...