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Walmart committed to China | tops Q3 estimates | Asda sales fall

AU: Woolworths offers free fruits for children at all stores

Russia: Retail is the most attractive sector for starting a new business
A survey conducted by the National Agency for Financial Studies (NAFI) in September 2015 revealed retail to be the most attractive sector for start-up businesses, reports retail-loyalty.org. The survey conducted on entrepreneurs found that if current business owners were offered the chance to start their businesses again in the current conditions, one in ten would not be able to, but one in five would have started a business in the retail sector. 18% of business owners considered wholesale and retail trade the most attractive sector for starting a business. No more than 3% would choose to start an agricultural business.

AU: Woolworths offers free fruits for children at all stores
KIDS are to be offered free pieces of fruit at all 961 Woolworths stores. The supermarket chain will place baskets of complimentary seasonal fruit in its fresh produce sections, inviting children to pick a piece. The scheme will be rolled out nationwide from early next month, and the free fruit is the same quality as the priced produce. Woolies expects to give away one million pieces of fruit a year, including bananas, apples, mandarins and pears, and it says the cost of priced fruit will not rise to compensate. (heraldsun.com.au)

US: Walmart tops profit estimates 
Walmart reported Q3 earnings that beat Wall Street's lowered expectations Tuesday. Walmart warned investors last month that its profit in fiscal year 2017 could drop 6% to 12%. Off Tuesday's news, Walmart shares rose. The retailer reported earnings of $3.3bn, or $1.03 a share, above analyst estimates of 98 cents a share, according to S&P Capital IQ. That was down from $3.7bn, or $1.15 a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue fell 1.3% to $117.4bn, which was about on par with estimates from S&P Capital IQ. Sales at Walmart U.S. stores increased 1.5%. This was the retailer's fifth consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales, and fourth consecutive quarter of positive same-store traffic. While Walmart reported a 11.4% decline in international sales, on a constant currency basis, sales increased by 3.2%. Walmart’s ecommerce sales increased by around 10% in the quarter, significantly lower than the 16% growth recorded in the Q2. (usatoday.com/igd.com)

Walmart committed to China
Walmart's Asian CEO and President, Scott Price, has told a summit in Manila that he expects China to drive half of the retail sectors growth over the next decade. Although not revealing numbers, Price also mentioned that Walmart's online business in China, Yihaodian, had "a great Singles Day". IGD already forecasts China's grocery market to easily be the largest online grocery market in the World and a recent report by HSBC, suggested that Online-to-Offline (O2O) sales in China grew 80% in H1 2015. (igd.com)

German young people rate EDEKA as best supermarket
EDEKA is "the best supermarket" in Germany, according to adolescents and young adults. EDEKA secured the first place in the category "Food & Drinks" of the Young Brand Awards 2015. Over 17,000 voters between 13 and 30 years of age took part in the survey. “We are very pleased with the award. It shows that EDEKA is perceived as a fresh and modern brand, and inspires people,” says Markus Mosa CEO of EDEKA.

UK: Asda sales fall for fifth quarter in a row
Supermarket Asda has seen like-for-like sales falling 4.5% in the three months to the end of September, its fifth quarter of falling revenue. In the previous quarter, Asda's sales slumped 4.7%, marking its worst performance in its 50-year history. Asda CEO Andy Clarke said the UK grocery market continued to be "challenging". It is now the worst performing of the Big Four supermarkets. But he added the supermarket chain had the "financial strength and clear plan to sustain us through this period, while we take appropriate and considered action to further strengthen our competitive position". (BBC)

UK: Bestway builds on depot investment
Sales to Scottish retailers are on the increase, reports this week’s Independent Retail News. Wholesaler Bestway says it is building its success in Scotland through increased investment in its network of Batleys depots, an improved range and a closer working relationship with customers. (usatoday.com) 

SA: Woolworths food retail sales climb
Woolworths Holdings, South Africa’s biggest retailer by market value, said sales gained 18% in the first 20 weeks of its financial year boosted by clothing, food and Australian chain David Jones. Excluding David Jones, which Woolworths bought for about $2bn last year, revenue advanced 12% in the period ending 15 November, the Cape Town-based company said in a statement on Tuesday after the market close. That was in line with the same period last year. (esmmagzine.com)

Sam’s Club: driving growth through investments
Net sales at Sam’s Club increased by 1.6%, with comp store sales up 0.4% (ex-fuel), at the low end of its guidance. Operating income increased by 8.4% (ex-fuel). (igd.com)

Walmart Canada lures more customers away from supermarkets
Canadians are spending more of their weekly food budgets at Walmart Canada stores, the company said Tuesday, as the world’s largest retailer moves to make grocery items a “core” offering at Canadian locations. Sales across Walmart’s network of about 400 Canadian stores jumped a strong 5.7%, the Arkansas-based retailer said, “driven by [a] strong performance in our core grocery business, as well as [a] stronger performance in our general merchandise business.” (globalnews.ca)

Estonia: ETK not to be rebranded Coop
Name change of the retail organization of Estonian consumer associations ETK Grupp into Coop Eesti Keskuhistu (Coop Estonian Central Association) will not change anything for ordinary shoppers as no visual change will take place in trade marks of all stores of Coop Estonia, reports LETA. ETK Grupp announced on Monday it was adopting the international brand of cooperative businesses Coop. The name change is expected to produce an economic effect of a couple of million Euro annually. (baltic-course.com)

Delivery charges cost online retailers dearly
Research by management consultancy Kurt Salmon, conducted for trade publication Retail Week, found that UK supermarkets are losing about £300m every year from online business, at a rate of £3 to £5 per individual home delivery. Please, click here to read more at ft.com
 
Minipreço opens seven new stores in Portugal
Spanish retail group Dia has opened seven new Minipreço Market stores in Portugal. The format differs from the traditional Minipreço stores through its colour scheme - blue and green - and by offering more services, especially in the area of fresh products. Dia now operates a total of 620 Minipreço neighbourhood stores in Portugal. (esmmagazine.com)

Uchumi CEO reaffirms long term strategy
Despite the extensive issues and problems that Kenya-based Uchumi has faced during 2015, its new CEO, Julius Kipng’etich, has said that it remains focused on its long term aims of being a leading regional retailer. Kipng’etich said that its aims remained valid despite the difficulties and that the business was being turned around, regaining its market standing. He explained this was being driven by it selling off assets, closing non-performing stores, exiting Tanzania and Uganda and building bridges with suppliers to get them back on side. (igd.com)

South-African Shoprite continues expansion programme
As part of the retailer’s AGM, South Africa-based Shoprite has said that it is on track to meet its store opening programme for its 2016 financial year, as part of which it is aiming to open 96 new food-oriented stores in the timeframe to June 2016. (igd.com)

Carrefour franchisee in Morocco to expand in sub-Saharan Africa
Carrefour’s Morocco-based franchisee, Label'Vie, has announced plans to expand in sub-Sahara African markets like Cameroon, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Label'Vie said that it could expand into the countries either organically or through acquisition, albeit without providing a timeline for expansion. (igd.com)

Qatar: Al Meera: sales rise 12.1% in first nine months
Qatar-based Al Meera has said that in the first nine months of its financial year that sales rose 12.1% to US$494.2m, while profit jumped by 53.8% to US$23.5m. (igd.com)

UAE: Choithrams expands in Abu Dhabi
UAE-based Choithrams has announced that it has opened two new generation stores at Al Falah community in Abu Dhabi. The two stores see the retailer add home delivery to its range of services, for shoppers whose bills are over US$14, while also providing its core fresh and ambient ranges. Choithrams said that it was aiming to add a further four stores in the short term. (igd.com)

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