Woolworths posts first loss in 23 years and gets new CEO
Kroger offers kids free fruit | Walmart to cut more HQ jobs
The new American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report released Tuesday revealed that Wegmans was the only supermarket in the country — and one of only three retailers across all categories – to improve its rating score. Not only did Wegmans, which operates an 88-store chain, take the top spot among supermarkets with an 86 score on a 100-point scale, it was the highest-scoring retailer in the ACSI survey. The Wegmans score is up one notch from a year ago. Overall customer satisfaction at supermarkets went down nearly 4 percentage points to 73. (democratandchronicle.com)
Lidl plans to open 100 stores in Serbia
German retailer Lidl will build its first 20 stores in Serbia across 2016 and 2017, the representatives for the company have announced at a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić. According to Lidl Serbia CEO, Dragan Čigoja, the first “test” retail outlet has already been built in Smederevo and a distribution center in Nova Pazova will be completed by May 2017. (esmmagazine.com)
UK: Free fruit for kids at local Kroger stores
A major grocery store chain is trying to promote healthier food choices for children. Kroger introduced its Fresh Fruit for Kids campaign on Thursday. Options include apples, bananas, and Clementine oranges. The Fresh Fruit for Kids campaign is being tested in 23 stores. If it's a success, Kroger will open it in 120 stores all across the nation. “Childhood obesity, we read about it every day. (...) Kroger wants to promote a healthier eating lifestyle for children. Hopefully, they can take that to their adult life as well”, a store manager told News 5 WCYB. (wcyb.com)
US: Walmart slashes more jobs at headquarters
Walmart cut more than 100 jobs at its Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters this week, in a new round of layoffs by the retailer. The latest cuts, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, follow the layoff of 450 workers at its home office in October. These cuts are separate from any occurring at the 100 or so Walmart Express stores the retailer has closed. A spokesman for Walmart said the cuts affected 1-3% of headquarters’ tech staff. Walmart recently merged the teams that work on in-store tech in Bentonville and its e-commerce team in Silicon Valley, creating overlap. (fortune.com)
AU: Woolworths posts first loss in 23 yrs, names new CEO
Woolworths Ltd, Australia's top grocer, on Friday posted its first loss in 23 years and said it hired a new CEO, drawing a line under a disastrous foray into hardware and pledging a return to supermarket basics. The A$972.7m first-half loss included a A$3.2bn write-off on its aborted Masters hardware chain, giving new CEO Brad Banducci, Woolworths' former head of food, a clean slate to reverse its slide against traditional rival Coles and newcomers like Aldi and Costco. But Woolworths Chairman Gordon Cairns warned that a full recovery could still be years away, as food and liquor sales grew just 0.7% against a 4.2% rise posted two days earlier by Coles, owned by Wesfarmers Ltd. Woolworths' half-year sales fell 1.4% to A$32bn. "This turnaround is three to five years and it will not be three to five minutes," Cairns said when questioned on the choice of Banducci following a six-month global search for a new CEO to replace Grant O'Brien. Banducci comes into the job amid swirling takeover rumours and with the baggage of having led, in his former role at the company, a year-long restructure aimed at reclaiming supermarket shoppers lost in a price war with Coles and Aldi. (Reuters)
Germany: Metro trials in-store vegetable greenhouse
Metro Cash & Carry has launched a pilot project in Berlin, as a collaboration with food start-up Infarm. Metro will grow herbs and vegetables in a 5 sqm greenhouse, simply placed on the store floor. The vegetables are grown with water, enriched with nutrients and heated by adjusted lights. This so-called hydrophonics system is clean, generates a decent turnover and is fit for small-scale use. The vertical emplacement allows to save space as well. (retaildetail.eu)
India: Bigbasket enters Vizag
Bigbasket - the online supermarket - entered Visakhapatnam on Thursday, with Telugu actress Praneeta inaugurating it. After phenomenal success of its maiden launch in Bengaluru in 2011, it clocked a turnover of Rs.220 crore last year. During the current fiscal, the online grocer is expecting a turnover of Rs.1,000 crore. (thehindu.com / thehindubusinessline.com)
Auchan sees sales at French hypermarkets fall again
Auchan has seen sales at its French hypermarkets drop by 2.8% in its full year, excluding fuel, trade publication Lineaires has reported. This follows a 1.2% drop in hypermarket sales in 2014, and a 2.6% drop the previous year. However, the group reported that sales performed slightly better in the second half of the year. (esmmagazine.com)
Food shoppers demand transparency
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Whole Foods UK turnover increases
Accounts submitted to Companies House by Fresh & Wild, the UK division of Texas based Whole Foods Market, show that UK turnover has grown by 12.5% to £114.1m across the 52 weeks to 27th September 2015. This continues a succession of strong annual turnover growth for Whole Food Market, which has now seen sales more than double from £50.6m in the year ending 25th September 2011 (+125%). (igd.com)
Canada: Loblaw 4Q sales rise thanks to food
Loblaw on Thursday said sales increased by 2.3% for the fiscal fourth quarter, thanks in part to improving comps in food, while impairment charges sent net earnings down by 34.4%. (supermarketnews.com)
Loblaw to expand click-and-collect
Loblaw will accelerate the click-and-collect program it first began testing in the GTA 14 months ago, said Galen Weston, executive chairman and president, Loblaw Companies Ltd., on Thursday. (thestar.com)
Malaysia: 7-Eleven's Q4 revenue grows
Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd, which announced a 100% earnings dividend payout for the second consecutive year yesterday, saw revenue for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2015, grow by RM18.6m or 3.9% to RM499.7m from RM481.1m in the previous year’s corresponding quarter. (thesundaily.my)
Italy’s Famila sees 2.5% growth in sales, to open 19 stores
Italian supermarket chain Famila reported a 2.53% like-for-like growth in sales during 2015 (compared to a market average of -0.23%), with a turnover of over €2bn. Part of Italy’s third largest food retailer, Selex Group, Famila is present throughout Italy in various formats (Famila supermarkets, Famila Superstore, and Iperfamila hypermarkets) and has 231 stores. Another 19 stores will be opened in the course of 2016. (esmmagazine.com)
Israel: Mega trustees ask court to investigate owners
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