Robust H1 for Seven & i | Food Lion invests for more organics
Top Sainsbury's executive to join Asda | New major chain in Vietnam
Lidl has rebuilt its store in Gorey, County Wexford, into a new, larger supermarket that represents a change in store strategy for the discounter. Lidl's Gorey store has been described as a 'new concept' store. It is the first of its kind to be built in Ireland, standing out first and foremost for its size. At almost 30,000 sq ft and two stories high, according to independent.ie, it is the biggest Lidl out of Ireland's 143 stores, paving the way for future expansion as the new build is hailed 'store of the future'. (igd.com)
UK: Top Sainsbury's executive to join Asda
Supermarket Asda, the British arm of Walmart, has lured a top executive from rival Sainsbury's to be its new COO, although it could be a year before he can start work. Asda said on Tuesday it had appointed Roger Burnley, currently Sainsbury's retail and operations director, to the COO role. Burnley will be deputy to Asda CEO Andy Clarke, with whom he worked with in a previous spell at Asda from 1996 to 2002 and before that at clothing and homewares retailer Matalan. (tuoitrenews.vn)
Russia: X5 retail sales jump
Russia food retailer X5 Retail Group's total net retail sales growth accelerated to 28.3% year-on-year in the third quarter. X5 added 541 net new stores in Q3 2015, more than twice the net growth in Q3. The group says this was the highest growth rate since Q3 2011 and was achieved on the back of a 13.1% increase in like-for-like (LFL) sales and a 15.2% increase from net new space, resulting from the 29.6% rise in selling space. (stockmarketwire.com)
Robust H1 for Seven & i
Seven & i reported a 4.5% increase in group sales to JPY5.31tn (US$44.2bn) in H1, with a 7.1% sales increase from 7-Eleven Japan. 7-Eleven Japan continued to drive the growth of the group through its new and existing store network. US based 7-Eleven, inc, saw a 3.6% increase in group sales to JPY1.44tn (US$12bn). LFL sales rose by 6.4%, driven by its compelling food offering. The strong performance was further enhanced by the exchange rate that led to a 38.8% increase in Operating income to JPY33.3bn (US$0.3bn). Seven & i will continue to grow its network over H2. By the end of the financial year, 7-Eleven, inc expect to open an additional 292 stores, reaching a total of 8,497 stores. 7-Eleven Japan are set open an additional 844 stores in H2, in line with H1. (igd.com)
US: Walmart grocery savings widen against Target
Raymond James & Associates’ monthly grocery comparison report for October found $5.72 in savings realized on a full basket of branded items purchased at Walmart compared to the same items bought at Target. The savings widened from 98 cents saved on the same items purchased in September. However, the basket savings decreased from $8.72 reported in October 2014. Please, click here to read more at thecitywire.com.
Brazil: Food division drives Q3 growth at GPA
GPA has reported third quarter sales of R$16.1bn (US$4.2bn), driven by growth in its food division. The food sector reported 7.3% growth, outperforming the sector according to July and August data from the Brazilian supermarket association ABRAS. Same store sales in the division were up 3.3%, improving on the performance in the second quarter and first half (+1.8% and +2.7% respectively). GPA opened 23 stores in the quarter, of which 17 were food outlets, and will continue to expand with a focus on higher-margin formats. (igd.com)
Carrefour opens new supermarkets in Taiwan
Carrefour Taiwan has announced further expansion in the country and is expanding its multi-format store offering. The France-based retailer will open four new supermarkets in Taiwan, meaning that the retailer will now operate a total of 18 outlets in the country. (esmmagazine.com)
India: IFC plans $25m investment in online grocery store BigBasket
The International Finance Corp.(IFC), the World Bank’s private lending arm, is planning to invest $25m in Bangalore-based Supermarket Grocery Supplies (SGS) Pvt. Ltd., the company that owns and operates online grocery retailer BigBasket.com, to finance the expansion of the company’s wholesale trading and supply business in India. IFC hopes that BigBasket’s expansion in smaller, low-income towns will help generate employment, develop supply chains and logistics infrastructure and support the development of small enterprises. (dealstreetasia.com)
US: Food Lion invests for more organics
Food Lion announced Tuesday that it is making changes to 162 stores in the Triangle and beyond in an effort to keep up with other grocery stores. The Salisbury-based company invested $250m to renovate every store in the region, train and promote employees and offer new products. It’s the company’s largest single investment ever made, Food Lion President Meg Ham said. “Raleigh is a really important market to Food Lion, and it’s time to invest in it,” Ham said. As part of the changes, Food Lion stores in the area now feature sections for gluten-free foods, larger produce sections and more natural and organic choices. (newsobserver.com)
First 7-Eleven store opens in Middle East
Seven Emirates Investment LLC, a master franchisee of 7-Eleven, Inc., this week celebrated the opening of its first 7-Eleven store in the United Arab Emirates. The new 2,000-square-foot store carries some 2,500 products that are both typical of 7-Eleven stores and special to that part of the world. (prnewswire.com)
India: Metro Cash and Carry eyes e-commerce sales
Metro Cash and Carry India Pvt. Ltd will open its second store in Delhi on 15 October, taking the total number of the company’s wholesale stores in India to 19. It plans to have 50 outlets in the country by 2020. Besides opening physical stores, the local arm of Germany’s Metro AG is also looking at e-commerce to make available more products to its customers, a first for Metro worldwide, Rajeev Bakshi, managing director, Metro Cash and Carry India, said on Tuesday. (livemint.com)
US: C&S, dinged by A&P collapse, announces layoffs
Stung by the disintegration of A&P, C&S Wholesale Grocers confirmed it has laid off “a small percentage” of its workers in sites throughout the country. In a statement provided to SupermarketNews, the Keene, N.H.-based wholesaler also cited changing consumer buying patterns and retail channel shifting for triggering the restructuring. The changes are not expected to result in the closing of any of C&S's facilities, SupermarketNews writes. (supermarketnews.com)
Italy: NovaCoop to launch new supermarket concept
Italian cooperative NovaCoop will launch a new concept store in Turin in December, to be located in Galleria San Federico. Fiorfood will be an “innovative project, based on the traditions and values of Coop”, while at the same time combining new trends in food purchases and consumption. The concept store, which will open on December 2, will implement some of the themes developed by the “Supermarket of the Future” presented by Nova Coop at the Milan Expo. (esmmagazine.com)
Vietnam: Mobile World launches agro-product retailing chain
At a conference with potential investors last Friday, Nguyen Duc Tai, CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Mobile World, said the company will launch its own agro-product retailing chain, to be called Bach Hoa Xanh (Green Department Store), next month, aiming to establish a network of thousands of such convenient stores in the future. The company will prioritize the responsiveness and price factor for their food stores while ensuring the quality to be equivalent to goods in traditional markets and supermarkets, according to news website Nhip Cau Dau Tu (Vietnam Investment Bridge). He also revealed that his retail chain will be modelled on Indonesia’s Alfamart Green with a test period of 12-18 months. The company plans to open between 6,000 and 8,000 stores by 2020 to take up to 15% of the convenience food and grocery market by then, according to insideretail.asia. (tuoitrenews.vn)
US: Teamsters to Albertsons' Miller: Delay warehouse closing
Teamsters representing workers at the two Safeway distribution centers slated for closure have appealed to the company’s CEO for an extension. As reported in SupermarketNews, the centers, operated by C&S Wholesale Grocers for Safeway, are scheduled to close Dec. 5, with work outsourced to other C&S facilities. A Safeway spokesman told SN last week that the company intended to sell the Upper Marlboro, Md., warehouse, which provided grocery and perishables to Safeway’s Eastern Division stores. (supermarketnews.com)
Germany: New purchasing corporation brings large advantages
The largest privately owned purchasing alliance of Germany and the real, - SB-Warenhaus GmbH will combine their purchasing powers in the future. To this end, real,- is henceforth working together with the "Privaten Handelshaus Deutschland GmbH" (PHD), the purchasing association belonging to the Bartels-Langness-Gruppe, Georg Jos, Kaes and K+K Klaas. Altogether the purchasing association covers around seven percent of the total German trade volume (FMCG). (presseportal.de)
AU: Aldi keeps on expanding
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Indian hyper-local delivery firms seek fresh sources of revenue to sustain margins
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Aldi ups ante on Coles, Woolworths by sweetening leave benefits
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