Sainsbury's H1 profits slumps by 18%

US: Haggen puts 'core' stores on auction block
Haggen on Monday informed U.S. Bankruptcy Court of its intention to sell all of its stores, including the 32 Northwest units it initially intended to continue operating, in order to further maximize recoveries to its estate. Haggen previously closed a number of stores and sought buyers for 95 “non-core” locations being auctioned this week. It announced separate deals with Smart & Final and Gelson’s Markets to buy 28 and six stores, respectively. Auctions for those bids are also scheduled this week. The 32 “core” stores collectively represent Haggen’s most valuable store locations. (supermarketnews.com)

Italian Conad comes with new format for organic fruit & veg
Italian food retailer Conad has teamed up with Almaverde Bio to test a new format for the sale of organic fruit and vegetables. The innovative project was recently launched in the fruit & veg departments of two Conad hypermarkets in Forli' and Rimini. The format consists of 'islands' entirely dedicated to organic fruit and vegetables, of the Almaverde Bio brand. The sales and personnel are fully managed by Canova, a company that is part of Apofruit Group, an exclusive licensee of Almaverde Bio. (esmmagazine.com)

US: 7-Eleven buys 101 stores in Florida
7-Eleven and subsidiary SEI Fuel Services acquired 101 locations in southern Florida. The properties were sold by Biscayne Petroleum and Everglades Petroleum, both managed by Carlos Fontecilla. The price of the transaction wasn’t disclosed. (bizjournals.com)

US: Tops Markets’ loss triples as sales stagnate
Flat same-store sales and difficulties raising prices in a low-inflation environment caused Tops Markets’ third-quarter loss to more than triple, the Amherst-based supermarket chain said. Tops lost $5.2m during the third quarter, compared with a loss of $1.4m a year earlier. The company’s overall sales fell by 4% to $561m from $581m, largely because the plunge in gasoline prices reduced the revenues generated from the chain’s fleet of fuelling stations at its stores by 30%. Sales from inside Tops’ stores slipped by less than 1%. (buffalonews.com)

UK: Sainsbury's H1 profits fall by 18%
Sainsbury's has reported a fall in half-year profits, citing a "particularly challenging" market. Underlying pre-tax profits for the 28 weeks to 26 September fell 17.9% to £308m. The firm said that retail sales, excluding fuel, were down 0.1%. Like-for-like sales fell 1.6%. At the end of September the company reported its seventh consecutive quarter of falling underlying sales. The company's CEO, admitted that "the grocery retail marketplace remains challenging" but said he was "confident we are making progress". The £308m profits figure was its lowest first-half profit since 2010, and down from £375m last year. However, the figure was still ahead of analysts' expectations of about £293m. Sainsbury's said food sales had declined by nearly 1%, but clothing performed strongly, with sales up by close to 10%. (BBC)

South-African Spar Group profit gains 5.6%
The South-African Spar Group Ltd., said full-year profit gained 5.6% as the company opened more stores in Ireland and its home market. Net income rose to $99.9m in the 12 months through September, the Durban-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. Sales increased by 35% to €5.2bn, helped by the acquisition of the BWG Group in Ireland last year. (Bloomberg)

Ahold Q3 profit up
Dutch supermarket chain Koninklijke Ahold NV Wednesday said its Q3 profit increased from the year prior, amid a growth in sales. Looking ahead, the company is on track to deliver a full year performance in line with expectations. The company's attributable net income rose to €189m from €178m. Operating income improved to €284m from €274m. Underlying operating income was €319m, while it totalled €285m last year. Net sales increased to €8.4bn from last year's 7.5bn Euro. While group sales growth was 13%, the increase was 1.7% at constant exchange rates. (nasdaq.com)

South-America: Supermarkets boost Falabella's Q3
Falabella has reported a 12.7% increase in consolidated revenues, year-on-year, for the third quarter of 2015, attributing the growth in part to increased sales area from supermarket openings, and same store sales growth at Tottus. In Chile, Tottus reported an 8% increase in revenues for Q3, driven by same store sales growth of 2.1% and four new stores. Tottus Peru reported an 8.9% increase in revenues for the quarter. Same store sales were affected by economic conditions and weak consumer demand. (igd.com)

US: Kroger to expand Anderson store into nation's largest
Spending $25m, Kroger is expanding its Anderson Towne Center store into its largest supermarket in the nation. Construction on the store at 7580 Beechmont Ave. will begin in spring and be completed in the summer of 2017, expanding the store's 105,000 square-foot footprint to 155,000 square feet. (cincinnati.com)

US: First Save-On-Foods International opened
The Overwaitea Food Group (OFG) has established its first SaveOn-Foods International store in the Surrey neighbourhood of Fleetwood, offering customers a diverse selection of world foods and the western foods. (cincinnati.com)

South-Africa: Massmart sales grow
In a sales update for the 11 months up to November 8, Massmart saw sales growth of 8.7% to 69.8bn rands ($4,9bn). The retailer's comparable store sales grew by 7% for the period. (moneyweb.co.za)

Indonesia retail sales grow 7.2%
Indonesia's retail sales in September grew 7.2% from a year earlier, a Bank Indonesia survey showed on Tuesday. (Reuters)