Carrefour to buy retailer Billa Romania
French supermarket operator Carrefour SA (CA.FR) Tuesday said it has agreed to buy Romanian supermarket chain Billa Romania from Germany's Rewe Group for an undisclosed amount. With the acquisition, Carrefour, one of Europe's biggest grocery-store groups, will add 86 stores in a country where it already operates 170 stores, the company said. Source
Whole Foods Market’s 10 top food trends to watch in 2016
Drawing on more than 100 years of combined industry experience, Whole Foods Market’s product experts have pinpointed 10 top food trends to watch in 2016. From “old-world” ingredients and new vino vehicles to emerging flavors and sourcing trends, this year’s forecast covers a lot of ground:
- Uncommon meat and seafood
- Wine in a can
- Plant-based everything
- Culture Craze: Fermented foods and probiotics
- Non-GMO-fed verified products
- Graze Craze: Grass-fed 2.0
- Dried and true: dehydrated foods
- Heirloom ingredients beyond the tomato
- Alternative and wheat-free flours
- ‘Old World’ flavor adventures
Why Target is aiming at urbanites for growth
The 38,376-square-foot Target to open in the Art Museum area in 2017 will be Philadelphia’s third small Target. In the battle for city dwellers, big-box retailer Target Corp. plans to open three mini-stores in Center City over the next 22 months. The idea: Bring a slimmed-down Target to the neighborhoods rather than have residents venture out to the suburbs. The company is betting that a vast number of millennials - 18- to 34-year-olds who are driving much of consumer demand these days, along with longtime residents and those returning to the city - will populate its "flexible format" stores, miniversions of a typical Target. The urban push began for Target in 2012 and has gradually expanded to 18 flexible format stores, in such cities as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and San Diego. Philadelphia is the latest. Read more
Botswana-based retailer targets South African expansion
Choppies Enterprises is extending its South African footprint with the proposed acquisition of retail outlets owned by niche supermarket group Jwayelani. This week Choppies confirmed filing an application with the South African Competition Commission regarding an intention to acquire 21 Jwayelani stores in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Jwayelani was initially started as a butchery, but morphed into a niche convenience store chain with a presence in Durban and Pietermaritzburg as well as smaller centres such as Pinetown, Empangeni, Estcourt, Umzinto and Flagstaff. No further detail was disclosed by Choppies, which already operates 39 stores in South Africa in the Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State and North West provinces. A more determined push by Choppies into South Africa is not entirely unexpected after it opened an 8,000m² fruit and vegetable distribution centre in Rustenburg in December last year. At the time Choppies CEO Ram Ottapathu said the centre was critical to the company’s expansion plans in South Africa’s northern provinces. Choppies’ new distribution centre is currently operating at only 35% capacity, but this will change as the South African operations expand. Read more
How native apps complement China’s retail experience
There are a number of key platforms that retail brands in China can consider. The mighty WeChat, for example, has both reach and resonance with a vast audience (more than 600 million monthly users, to be more precise), as well as built-in, trusted payment facilities. Tmall and JD.com are just two examples of the thousands of e-commerce platforms in China. (Even Amazon has a store on Tmall). They offer easy-to-use, well-established e-commerce functionality that can include logistics, warehousing and payment facilities. For retailers wanting to take the quickest route to market, establishing a shop on one of these existing services is an easy solution. And of course, investing in a mobile website is also a good alternative. Read more
Indomaret to open 1,600 outlets next year
Indonesian convenience store chain Indomaret is planning to open 1,600 more outlets across the archipelago next year to strengthen its grip on the market amid its confidence over the economic outlook. With the 1,600 new stores target for next year, the company is seeing a stable rate of growth, as in 2015 it opened an additional 1,560 outlets. The retail company expects to see sales increase in each outlet. As of November 2015, the network had 12,150 stores under 26 main branches in big provinces. Out of that total, 32 percent are owned by individuals or groups that bought franchises from the company. Read more
PepperTap digs up $40 million in Series B, acquires Jiffstore
Online grocery delivery platform PepperTap obtains Jiffstore as a part of its plans to boost the online grocery services. PepperTap has dug up $4 million (about Rs 26.5 crore) from Innoven Capital and hopes to raise an extra $11 million (about Rs 73 crore) by January-end. In this way, PepperTap has had an aggregate fund raiser of about $51.2 million (Rs 339.61 crore), he included. The one-year old organization has additionally obtained Bengaluru-based hyperlocal grocery delivery startup Jiffstore for an undisclosed sum. Jiffstore’s group of 40 employees will join PepperTap’s Gurgaon and Bengaluru workplaces. PepperTap expects to utilize cooperative energies with Jiffstore to construct an astounding client experience, Singh said. Read more
Casino plans to end activities in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia
Vietnamplus.vn reports that according to the Bloomberg agency, French group, Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, following the announcement of a €2 billion insolvency plan, intends to sell their assets in Vietnam, Thailand and Colombia. Within the plan, Casino would sell their Big C supermarket chain in Vietnam, valued at €750 million. Selling their activities in Thailand and Colombia could give them €550 million and €200 million respectively. Last July, Casino sold a large part of their real estate capital in Brazil and Argentina, total value reached €1.7 billion. The aim is to strengthen their debt relief. Source
Ivory Coast : First Carrefour store to open in Sub-Saharan Africa
A new shopping mall covering 20,000m2 opened on the 18th December in Abidjan. It is the country’s largest shopping centre, and houses the first Carrefour store in Sub-Saharan Africa. Source
Russian retailer Dixi changes leadership, prepares new strategy
Third for retail trade turnover in Russia, food retailer Dixi has announced a change in president: replacing Ilya Yakubson, is Sergei Belyakov, reports vedomosti.ru. The board of directors took the decision December 18, and Yakubson will continue as a deputy chairman of the board of directors. In November, Dixi’s revenues increased 17.9% to 23.5 billion rubles, while in October they increased by 19.2%. Sales for the 3rd quarter fell by 1.8% due to the decrease in traffic of 7.5%. Dixi, like many Russia retailers experiences a slowing of growth of revenues and decrease in traffic in the 2nd quarter. Their main task now is to improve operating efficiency and they are working on a new strategy for this, including launching a loyalty program. (1 ruble = 0.013 euros)
Sainsbury's is the most popular TV Christmas advert