Ahold, Delhaize struggling to fully complete merger

UK: Bestway Wholesale profits fall
Bestway Wholesale has reported a fall in pre-tax profits to 19.7m, down from £44.6m the previous year. Turnover was down 1.1% to £2.17bn in trading conditions described by the company as challenging, with the wholesale sector adversely affected by food price deflation, intense competition and changing consumer habits. (talkingretail.com)

Ahold-Delhaize merger not fully completed in Belgium yet
Nearly one year after Ahold's supermarket chain Albert Heijn was required to sell eight stores by the Belgian Competition Authority (BAM) as part of the merger between Ahold and Delhaize, the stores have still not been bought as there are no potential buyers. Although the merger of parent company Ahold and Delhaize Group has now been a fact for several months, the merger has not been officially completed in Belgium. (gondola.be)

UK: Waitrose to sell spinach for breakfast
At Waitrose, shoppers can now pick up a breakfast salad pot. Containing layers of spinach, red rice, quinoa, egg and a dollop of hollandaise - the Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine breakfast salads add a useful source of protein to start your morning, the retailer says in a press release. With more workers consuming the first meal of the day 'al desko', the salads have been made ready to eat.

Belgium: Delhaize to expand online range with addition of meal boxes
Mirroring its offer in the Netherlands, Delhaize has started to stock a range of meal boxes through its online site. The company enables shoppers to collect the boxes either in-store or to have them delivered to their homes either on their own or as part of a larger shop. Although Delhaize said it had been investigating the opportunity to launch such a product before the merger with Ahold, the experience of Albert Heijn in the Netherlands had helped it to fine-tune the service before launch. (igd.com)

Ahold-Delhaize's 2016 results encourage further growth in Greece and Serbia
In an interview in the local press, AB Vassilopoulos’s COO, Leonidas Vrettakos, has said that it will continue to expand, following a positive 2016. AB Vassilopoulos benefited in 2016 from the slow collapse of Marinopolous and through its investment in price. However, Vrettakos noted that the former point would be lessened in 2017 following its acquisition by Sklavenitis. Vrettakos said AB Vassilopoulos will invest €100m in 2017 to add new 30 stores and on the construction of a new warehouse. He did not rule out making small, opportunistic acquisitions if they arose, especially if they strengthened the company’s position in Crete and Thessaloniki. Ahold Delhaize’s CEO, Dick Boer, meanwhile, has been quoted in local media as saying that the company plans to continue its expansion in Serbia. The statements came after a meetings between Boer and Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic. (igd.com)

US: Wegmans debuts Power Meals
Wegmans has launched its Power Meals, which feature fresh, whole ingredients served with balanced nutrition. Great as a lunch or dinner, Power Meals are now available at most Wegmans Food Markets, and priced in the $8-$15 range, depending upon the ingredients. (groceryheadquarters.com)

Majid Al Futtaim's long-term focus on Africa
Majid Al Futtaim is aiming to ‘build a foundation position in Africa’, primarily with the Carrefour brand. Majid Al Futtaim plans to continue the expansion of the Carrefour brand in 2017, looking to open 10 new hypermarkets and 19 supermarkets during the year. Setting out its expansion plans for its core hypermarket format, Majid Al Futtaim said it was targeting the opening of two hypermarkets each in Egypt, Pakistan and UAE and one each in Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. (igd.com)

UK supermarket has robot that is able to pick fruit
British online grocery store Ocado has been on the hunt for a robot. It wants to even further automize its grocery process by getting a robot to pick and pack orders. So in coordination with the SoMa Project — a robotics project funded by the European Union — Ocado has been testing and developing possible solutions. The team’s been working on this project for 18 months, but today’s the first time the public is getting a look at the progress they’ve made. (theverge.com)

Kenya: Nakumatt engages suppliers to stock emptying shelves
Regional retailer Nakumatt’s woes look to be far from over, even as it closes in on a strategic partner to inject capital into the business. The cash crunch has seen Nakumatt go up against it with its retailers over unsettled payments that has lately resulted in some goods missing from its shelves. This has seen Nakumatt open talks with suppliers to normalize deliveries as it undergoes what it terms as a ‘challenging period’. (citizentv.co.ke)

Majid Al Futtaim announces strong FY results
UAE-based Majid Al Futtaim, which has the Carrefour franchise for 38 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has said revenues at its Retail division rose by 8% to AED23.9 bn (US$6.5 bn). Sustained expansion helped drive the company’s results during the year, with store growth set to continue in 2017. Majid Al Futtaim said revenues at its Retail division rose 8%, while EBITDA increased by 5%, underlining the continued investment that the company was making in expansion. The retailer opened 10 new hypermarkets, taking its total to 77, and 10 new supermarkets, to 96, during 2016, which underpinned the revenue growth.

Greater Porto to host Mercadona's first Portuguese store
Spanish grocery retailer Mercadona has chosen a 9,000 square metre plot in the municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia (Greater Porto area) for the first of four stores it plans to open in Portugal in 2019. (esmmagazine.com)

Kenya: Carrefour extends delivery platform to suburban Nairobi
Carrefour has extended its delivery network in Nairobi to include areas further out of the Kenyan capital. This is an effort to capitalise on the growing affluence of the resident middle class, BusinessDailyAfrica.com has reported. Carrefour has also created a third zone for which only next-day delivery is possible, covering Eldoret, Kisumu, Nyeri, Mombasa, and Nakuru. (esmmagazine.com)