Amazon & Ocado tie-up rumours cause shares to jump

US: Kroger revamps fresh produce displays at local stores -
Kroger Co. has announced that it has renovated and expanded the produce departments at four Hampton Roads stores. The nation's largest traditional grocery retailer has anchored the produce departments with brand new market-style slant-top tables that display fresh produce as well as refrigerated produce cases with new misting systems. These changes have allowed Kroger to expand its selection of organic produce, part of the grocer's overall strategy to continue to grow its lineup of natural foods. (13newsnow.com)

UK: Amazon to tie-up with Ocado?
Amazon may be about to deliver a tie-up with Ocado, according to rumours in the City yesterday. Talk was that the American US internet retailer has advisers beavering away on a potential approach to the British online supermarket as part of its ambitions to launch a fully-fledged grocery delivery service in the UK. If Amazon was to buy Ocado with its shares at current levels, that would allow it to enter the UK market more cost-effectively than setting up its own operation from scratch, so the story went. A market source said: ‘For Amazon, it would be a perfect fit.’ Ocado shares have jumped more than 10bn in early trading following reports of a tie-up with potential rival Amazon, cityam.com reports. An Ocado spokesman declined to comment. An Amazon spokesman said: ‘We never comment on rumour and speculation.’ (thisismoney.co.uk)

UK: Waitrose to speed up paying their bills to suppliers
Waitrose is to speed up payments to its smallest suppliers after it emerged that it was taking three times longer than Tesco to pay some of its bills. The upmarket grocer has begun a high-level internal assessment of how it treats and pays suppliers, The Times reported. (retailgazette.co.uk)

France: Leclerc group ended 2015 with increase in market share
Rayon-boissons.com reports that according to Kantar Worldpanel, the Leclerc group finished the year with a +0.6 point increase in market share last December (reaching 20.8% between 30/11/15- 27/12/15). In 2015, Lidl saw a +0.2 point increase in market share reaching 4.9%. The Casino group also increased by +0.2 points (11.4%), as did Leader Price which saw an increase in clients. Géant Casino’s market share increased by +0.1 points. Click and Collect points saw a +0.6 point increase in market share, reaching 5.1%.

Dia to dismantle El Árbol, closing 40 stores and rebranding 342
Dia has announced plans to close 40 of its El Árbol stores and rebrand the remaining 342, according to La Nueva Espana. The group hopes to come to an agreement with the employees of the closing shops and relocate them in different stores, while the surviving supermarkets will become either Dia Market and La Plaza de Dia, the newspaper reports. (esmmagazine.com)

Finnish K-food to lower the prices in January and February
K-food stores will reduce the prices of 2,000 products due to a fall in raw material prices on the world market and a decrease in costs. In the current economic situation, the price of food has become increasingly important to many consumers. At the same time, the role of food quality and local origin in making buying decisions is growing. Last year, the sales of products from local producers at K-stores increased by 15%. (nasdaq.com)

Italy: LD Market to be rebranded under MD Discount banner
LD Market stores, located in northern Italy, are to be gradually restructured and reopened under the MD Discount banner, as parent company Lillo seeks to standardise all of its points of sale. The fruit and vegetables section will be placed at the entrance to the store, which will also feature a special focus on the deli, butcher and bakery sections. The product offer will include over 2,000 MD private label products. MD also plans to invest €500m over the next five years to develop 60 outlets, of which 20 are expected to open this year alone. (esmmagazine.com)

Tesco handing out free fruit throughout Britain
Between 3.30pm and 5.30pm yesterday, Tesco offered its clientèle free pieces of fruit to combat the malaise of so-called ‘Blue Monday’, the most depressing day of the calendar year, internationalsupermarketnews.com reports. At selected supermarkets throughout Britain, the grocer handed out free apples, clementine oranges, kiwis and blueberries to its shoppers. The good will of the gesture, along with the elevation of blood sugar levels, will improve people’s moods, Tesco hopes. (esmmagazine.com)

Dutch and German Aldi want to go pesticide-free
German discount retailer Aldi has asked its German and Dutch fruit and vegetable suppliers to stop using eight pesticides that were found hazardous to bees. According to a press release from Greenpeace, Aldi Süd has asked the suppliers to bring this to effect at the earliest. These eight pesticides include, thiamethoxam, chlorpyrifos, clothianidin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, fipronil, imidacloprid and sulfoxaflor. Please, click here to read more at internationalsupermarketnews.com

Ivory Coast: Carrefour markets locally made products
Carrefour, French multinational retailer broke new ground by engaging in the marketing of local products like pineapple from Bonoua (south-east), yam from Bondoukou (east), rice from Danané (west), tomato and outfits designed by local seamstresses in Ivory Coast. This choice has required the signature of 170 distribution contracts with producers and suppliers throughout Ivory Coast. “We try to be part of the local economy by participating in its modernization. For more we import, we find less quality products, “ notes the Managing Director of CFAO-Retail. (cp-africa.com)

Nisa boss calls for more consolidation of convenience chains
Please, click here to read the article.

Nisa reports strong Christmas trading
Please, click here to read the article.

Canadian Sobey’s: Dollar and El-Nino will keep fruit/veg prices high
Canadians can expect high prices for produce to last at least several more weeks as a result of the weak loonie and weather issues in crop-growing areas, Sobey’s said Monday. The company, which also operates banners such as IGA, Safeway and FreshCo, is struggling to deal with the worst situation in 30 years by trying to import fresh food from other growing areas such as Florida, Morocco and Spain, Tessier said. (globalnews.ca)

UK: Asda to cut 'hundreds' of jobs after weak Christmas
Asda is cutting hundreds of jobs at its Leeds headquarters after falling behind its rivals during the key Christmas trading period.
The UK's third largest supermarket chain is the latest grocer to announce a jobs cull, which is expected to involve a string of redundancies including senior staff across several departments. (telegraph.co.uk)

Homebase bought by Australia's Wesfarmers for £340m
UK DIY chain Homebase has been sold by its owner Home Retail Group to Australian retail giant Wesfarmers for £340m (A$705M). Wesfarmers said it would spend a further £500m on upgrading the UK stores. (BBC)

India: Bigbasket enters Uttar Pradesh
Bigbasket, one of leading online supermarkets in India announced its arrival into Uttar Pradesh with the launch of its operations in Lucknow. Bigbasket claims to offer over 15,000 products in the grocery and the household segment. (Times of India)

Ireland: Supervalu keeps number one position
Irish consumers spent €77m more over the final 12 weeks of 2015 than in the same period the previous year according to new figures from market research firm Kantar Worldpanel. Its latest grocery market share figures suggest the top five supermarket groups in the country all experienced a rise in sales over the key Christmas period. Supervalu remains the number one position with a market share of just over 25%. Supervalu's sales grew by 4.3% over the final three months of the year. Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Aldi and Lidl all saw their sales rise too, according to the Kantar Worldpanel Data. (rte.ie)

Lulu expands in Saudi total investments to touch SAR1.5bn ($400mln)
Speaking at the inauguration Lulu group chairman Yusuffali M A announced the proposed launch of four more hypermarkets this year two in Jeddah and one each in Hail and Hofuf. 'In 2017 we will launch six more in the Kingdom including in Mecca and Madina' adde Yusuff Ali. Revealing his investment plans Yusuff Ali said 'We have already invested more than SAR800mn till now and intend to further invest SAR700mn by the end of 2017 taking our total investment to more than SAR1.5bn in the Kingdom. (menafn.com)

UK: Aldi to to focus on clothes too
The discount supermarket chain is launching its first office-appropriate fashion line later this week, with shirts, ties, handbags and real leather shoes amongst the garments on sale. With workwear for both men and women available, Aldi claims that its range is under half the price of high street competitors such as Marks & Spencer and Next. (telegraph.co.uk)

Israel: Mega supermarket chain wins 30-day reprieve
District court judge granted the struggling Mega supermarket chain 30 days protection from creditors on Monday and was expected to appoint trustees to keep the company going, find a buyer, and try to save 3,500 jobs. (timesofisrael.com)

Israel: Alon Blue Square examining offers to purchase its holdings in Blue Square Real Estate Ltd.
Please, click here to read the article.