Marc Lore, Walmart’s head of e-commerce, says the company will make more acquisitions going forward. “We’re being pretty active, yeah,” he told Recode Senior Editor Jason Del Rey at the Code Commerce conference in Las Vegas. “We’re behind,” he added. “We need to catch up.” All told, he has spent more than $200m buying e-commerce startups. “We’re seeing what these acquisitions have done for the business,” he said. “It’s definitely a nice surge, so we will continue to do it.” (recode.net) UK: Tesco restructures international leadership
Tesco has made two significant changes to its leadership team, with the appointment of new CEO's for both its Asian and European businesses. Tony Hoggett, the existing COO for Tesco in the UK, has been promoted to CEO for the retailer's Asian business. Hoggett joined Tesco in 1990 and has extensive operational experience in both the retailer's domestic and international markets. Matt Simister, who currently is commercial director for fresh food and private label sourcing, buying and supply chain across the group, will become CEO of Europe. Existing International CEO, Trevor Masters, who has worked for the retailer for 38 years, is to step down from the business at the end of May. (igd.com)US: Dollar General to increase fresh offer
After reporting strong growth for FY 2016, Dollar General has announced it will increase its fresh produce offer. Sales for the quarter were up 13.7% (includes an extra week compared to 2015), to $6.01bn, with same store sales up 1%. Sales were driven by positive results in the grocery. Following this, the retailer will significantly expand its fresh produce offer. (igd.com)Delhaize America selects RELEX solutions’ to sharpen fresh produce
Delhaize America has selected RELEX Solutions’ supply chain planning solutions to forecast and replenish perishable categories within its distribution centres, which service its supermarket brand Food Lion, with more than 1,000 in the Southeastern United States, and Hannaford, with 181 across New England and New York. (internationalsupermarketnews.com)Trading in Sprouts Farmers Market ahead of report on merger raises eyebrows
Trading in Sprouts Farmers Market Inc's shares and options surged last week ahead of a report that the natural-foods retailer was the subject of merger talks, raising questions about whether news of a possible deal was leaked. On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that the Cerberus Capital-backed food and drug retailer Albertsons Cos had held preliminary merger talks with Sprouts in recent weeks. Sprouts shares rose about 5% on Monday, before reversing course to trade down 1% at $21.79. "I expect regulators will look into the (options) activity," said Henry Schwartz, president at options analytics firm Trade Alert. (Reuters)Target names new grocery chief of Kroger
Target Corp on Monday named Kroger CO veteran Jeff Burt its senior vice president of grocery, fresh food and beverage, as the retailer makes a renewed push to overhaul the business amid an intensifying price war. (Reuters)
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Supermarkets are losing the grocery price war
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Hungary to toughen regulation on foreign supermarket chains
The Hungarian government is reportedly drafting a bill that is to levy an additional HUF 20bn (€64m) per year on foreign-owned supermarket chains through a number of fiscal and administrative measures, eurofoodlaw.com reports. Please, click here to read more at bna.com.California and Texas are dominating grocery store growth
In 2016, more than 440 grocery stores opened in the United States, adding 18.8m sq. ft. of space. And 27% of those stores opened in two states: Texas and California. That’s according to JLL’s latest Grocery Tracker. (chainstoreage.com) Russia's Magnit denies report it may buy Agrokor retail units
Russia's largest retailer Magnit denied on Monday that it planned to buy retail units from indebted Croatian food group Agrokor, after the Slovenian daily paper Finance reported its interest. The daily, which did not cite sources for its report, had said Magnit could buy the largest Slovenian retailer Mercator, Croatian retailer Konzum and Serbian retailer Idea, which are all owned by Agrokor. (Reuters)UK: Morrisons using artificial intelligence to stock its shops
The supermarket is rolling out a system from tech firm Blue Yonder that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict exactly what is needed in each of Morrisons' 491 stores. Morrisons has been trialling the technology in selected stores for around 18 months, and is now introducing it across its store portfolio. To build its stocking algorithm, Morrisons gave Blue Yonder three years of sales data for every single store, and the exact weather around every store over the same period. (cityam.com) India: Reliance to ramp up retail business
India's largest retailer, Reliance Retail, is planning to add more stores.The retailer plans to open 200 grocery stores (under Fresh and Smart banners), 300 wholesale outlets (under Market), 300 fashion stores (under Trends) and up to 600 fuel stations. The total investment is expected to be around INR25bn (US$382m). (igd.com)Walmart wants to deploy in-store drones
Walmart has filed a patent to use drones within its stores. The patent application describes “dispatching an airborne drone to an item located within a retail shopping facility, securing that item of inventory to the airborne drone, and then directing the airborne drone to carry the item of inventory to a delivery area located within the retail shopping area.” (bgr.com) Morrisons partners with Just Eat for in-store takeaway service
Morrisons has partnered with Just Eat to set up the first takeaway food service to operate out of a supermarket. The retailer has already partnered with Amazon, Timpson and Doddle to enhance one of its six priorities for growth, which is to "develop useful and popular services". (igd.com)