Aldi UK wants to open 130 new stores

Israeli supermarket chain Shufersal swings to Q2 profit
Israel's largest supermarket chain, Shufersal, swung to a second-quarter profit after changing strategy and lowering consumer prices, the company said on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Its profit was 16m shekels ($4.2m) versus a loss of 157m shekels a year earlier. Revenue fell to 2.8bn shekels from 3bn. Aside from lowering prices, the company said it had also been implementing an efficiency plan and was promoting its own private brand. Same store sales fell 7.4%.

CA: Save-On-Foods expands into Saskatchewan and Manitoba
Save-On-Foods is launching a major expansion of up to 40 stores in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Darrell Jones, president of the Langley-based company, has announced, biv.com reports. The first will open this year in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, followed by others by 2016 in Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw. Save-On-Foods, part of the Overwaitea Food Group owned bybnaire Jimmy Pattison, will also open three stores in Winnipeg. In all, the new stores will create more than 4,000 jobs, Jones estimated.

US: Town’s Health Department puts grocery health inspections online
Consumers are now able to see how their favorite groceries and even convenience stores comply with food safety rules, if those establishments are in Greenfield, greenfieldnow.com reports. The Greenfield Health Department has put its inspection reports online at healthspace.com. The Greenfield Board of Health endorsed the posting of inspections to create transparency because the public has been requesting the reports through Wisconsin's Open Records Law.

UK: Lidl expands ISB range
Lidl has expanded its in-store bakery (ISB) range to include products like pizza and goat’s cheese focaccia, bakeryinfo.co.uk reports.

German Metro turns to profit in Q3
Metro Group reported that its third-quarter profit attributable to shareholders was €115m, compared to a loss of €63m in the same quarter last year, rttnews.com reports. Earnings per share came to €0.35, compared to a loss of €0.19 in the prior year. EBIT rose to €175m from €171m last year. EBIT before special items amounted to €209m, down from €253m in the prior year. Quarterly sales adjusted for currency effects and portfolio changes declined slightly by 0.2%. Sales declined 1.4% to €13.97bn from last year's €14.170bn, nasdaq.com reports. Like-for-like sales were down slightly by 0.4%, due to the earlier Easter business, which mostly fell into the second quarter. Online sales also grew substantially by 26% and delivery sales increased 14.5%. In Germany, sales fell 3.4%, mainly reflecting the different timing of the Easter business. International sales dropped 0.2%. The company's sales in Asia/Africa grew 18.6% on a reported basis, but dropped 3.2% in local currency.

Shoprite has no plans to leave Uganda
Shoprite Holdings, South Africa’s largest grocer, isn’t planning to sell its Ugandan business to Nakumatt Holdings of Kenya and won’t be leaving the east African country, moneyweb.co.za reports. Shoprite “has no plan to exit the Ugandan market,” Sarita van Wyk, a spokeswoman for the Cape Town-based company, said in an e-mailed response to questions on Wednesday. The retailer, which owns Lugogo Mall and Clock Tower Centre in Uganda, is “continuously investigating new opportunities to expand its business.”

German NABU and REWE Group establish strategic partnership
The German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU e. V.) and REWE Group have entered into a long-term strategic partnership, internationalsupermarketnews.com reports. An extensive consulting and licensing agreement was concluded on 6 July 2015 in Berlin by the President of NABU, Olaf Tschimpke, and the CEO of REWE Group, Alain Caparros. NABU is Germany’s largest environmental and nature conservation association; REWE Group is the second-largest food retailer in Germany. The recently signed strategic partnership between NABU and REWE Group is based on the objective to provide new, additional impetus for more sustainable business practices and more sustainable consumption in Germany and to further improve environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources along the value chains, REWE says in a press release.

Aldi aims to open 130 new stores in £600m expansion
The supermarket is aiming to increase its UK workforce to 35,000, as well as open 130 new stores in the two-year planned investment, which it says will lay the foundation for 25 years of growth, expressandstar.com reports. Aldi has boomed in recent years, and in April it overtook Waitrose as the UK's sixth-biggest supermarket, with 5.3% of the market share. Aldi also launched its campaign as an official Team GB partner with a year to go until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. "Since we opened our doors in the UK in April 1990, we've worked hard to establish British roots, sourcing locally where possible and building long-term relationships with British suppliers," Aldi’s joint manager directer said.

China to check food safety in supermarkets
China's top court has demanded heavy penalties for companies and individuals who violate the country's food safety laws, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Food safety is one of the top concerns among Chinese consumers after a series of scares from milk tainted with industrial chemicals. Retailers Walmart Stores Inc and France's Carrefour SA have also come under the spotlight.

US: Instacart to deliver from Chicago's Pete's Fresh Market
Instacart, the fast-growing grocery delivery service whose personal shoppers hand pick and deliver items from trusted local stores, announced today that the local family owned and operated business Pete's Fresh Market has selected Instacart as its exclusive delivery partner, marketwired.com reports. Starting today, Instacart customers in Chicago and Oakbrook Terrace can order their favorite items from Pete's Fresh Market and have them delivered in as little as one hour. Prices for Pete's Fresh Market items on Instacart are the same as in store.

US: Costco Wholesale reports July sales results
Costco Wholesale today reported net sales of $8.64bn for the month of July, the four weeks ended August 2, 2015, an increase of 1% from $8.55bn during the similar period last year, marketwired.com reports. For the forty-eight weeks ended August 2, 2015, the Company reported net sales of $104.95bn, an increase of 3% from $101.43bn during the similar period last year.

Hungary’s retail sales up
KSH data suggest that after being adjusted for calendar year effects, retail sales were up 6.2% year-on-year in June, bbj.hu reports. Food sales increased 4.5%, non-food sales were up 8.1%.

France: Auchan to convert some DIA stores to A2Pas banner
Auchan has confirmed that it plans to convert 17 of the 49 former DIA stores that it acquired from Carrefour, to its A2Pas banner, kamcity.com reports. The group said the stores will be operated by independent retailers, and will be converted to the banner over the next few weeks. The stores are located mainly in Paris and strategic spots around the city. With the move, the A2Pas banner will have nearly 70 outlets operational by the end of 2015.

Turkey: Retail sales decrease, wholesale increases
The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce's Consumer Price Index, announced that retail sales decreased while wholesale increased in the month of July, as reported by gazetevatan.com. Accordingly, in July retail prices decreased by 0.7% in Istanbul and wholesale prices rose by 0.2%. Bases on retail prices in July 2015, spending increased slightly in many areas including household spending (1.3%), transport and communications spending (0.5%) and spending on culture, education and recreation increased by 0.5%. On the other hand decreases were seen in spending on clothing (6%) and on food which decreased by 0.7%.

US: Why Whole Foods' biggest problem is Wall Street
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