US: Safeway names new CEO
The company that acquired Pleasanton-based Safeway has named a new CEO and restructured the top rungs of leadership at the grocery giant. Bob Miller, the company’s current executive chairman, will be the new CEO, effective immediately, bizjournals.com reports. Miller will lead Safeway, Inc., New Albertsons, Inc. and Albertson’s LLC. AB Acquisition LLC, the parent company of Albertson’s, acquired Safeway in a $9bn transaction that closed Jan. 30.
US: Publix listed as top workplacePublix is once again one of America's 100 Best Companies to Work For, but Darden Restaurants no longer is. The Lakeland-based supermarket chain has 167,367 employees, orlandosentinel.com reports. Just 5% of the company's full-time workers leave each year.
UK: Morrisons loses another executive
Morrisons has parted company with its group trading director, Casper Meijer, because he did not want to relocate from the Netherlands to the UK, theguardian.com reports. David Potts, has already sacked almost half of his senior management team as he set about creating a leaner management board to speed up decision-making.
US: Walmart faces another round of wage theft claimsRetail giant Walmart faces a potential class action lawsuit in California alleging the company has engaged in wage theft, rhrealitycheck.org reports. The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, claims Walmart uses “assistant store managers” to do the work of lower-level employees in order to avoid paying overtime to those lower-level employees, according to the allegations in the complaint.
SuperValu steals supermarket top slot from Tesco
SuperValu has taken over from Tesco as the largest grocery retailer in Ireland, irishtimes.com reports. The latest supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel show SuperValu with a market share of 24.9% compared with the 24.7% Tesco now has. Dunnes Stores has continued to enjoy healthy growth, with a 4.9% sales increase improving its market share to 22.7%. Aldi and Lidl control a combined 16.9% of the grocery market based on sales.
UK: Causer buys more Tesco bonds
Invesco Perpetual bond fund manager Paul Causer has been buying more Tesco (TSCO) bonds in the search for value from an 'extraordinary' market, citywire.co.uk reports. Citywire AA-rated Causer, who manages around £27bn in assets and is among the top performing bond managers over 10 years, said he was identifying some pockets of value in a bond market where large parts have become 'uninvestable'.
Albert Heijn targeting high frequency locations in Germany
In an interview with RP Online, Mathias Gehle, Albert Heijn’s MD for Germany, has said that the Ahold-owned Albert Heijn to Go chain is looking to add new stores in Germany in 2015 and will be looking to target convenient locations such as petrol stations, hospitals and universities, retailanalysis.igd.com reports.UK Grocers subsidised £11bn to pay workers
Taxpayers are forking out £11bn a year to ‘subsidise’ supermarkets, so they have their wages ‘topped up’ with benefits and tax credits, according to a charity, metro.co.uk reports. Five firms alone (Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, Morrisons and Next) are subsidised by £1bn a year – despite making a profit in the UK, according to calculations by charity Citizens UK. A similar case in America earlier this year led to mega-retailer Walmart raising its wages for starting employees.AU: Aldi wants change to Fair Work Act
Aldi, which has been credited with improving competition in the super market industry, found as it expanded in Australia that unions disrupted its operations by complaining to the Fair Work Commission about workplace agreements that most staff wanted, afr.com reports. Based on its experience in Australia, the company said the time taken by the commission to consider enterprise agreements approved by its employees "can be unduly prolonged, costly and disruptive to continuing business operations".UK: Budgens appoints St Luke's for advertising
Grocery retailer Budgens, part of the Musgrave Group, has appointed St Luke’s to handle its advertising account, thedrum.com reports. Following a pitch handled by ISBA, work on the account will begin immediately, with St Luke’s creating a campaign for TV and social communicating the brand’s positioning.Russia: Magnit awarded highest rating by S&P
Russia's biggest food retailer, PJSC Magnit, has been upgraded to BB+, the highest non-investment grade, by international credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, esmmagazine.com reports. S&P expects continuous growth for the company despite Russia's struggling economy. Magnit's competitor X5's rating got boosted up to BB-, the third highest non-investemnt grade.Spain: DIA’s purchase of Eroski stores approved
DIA has received approval from the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) for its acquisition of about 160 Eroski stores, retailanalysis.igd.com reports. The acquisition of the Eroski stores is a key part of the retailer’s strategy to play a role in the consolidation of grocery retailing in SpainUS: Kroger Louisville workers approve new deal
Kroger Co. said associates in the Louisville, Ky., division ratified a four-year contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union local 227, supermarketnews.com reports. "This new contract provides wage increases, affordable health care and investment in our associates' pension fund to support their retirement," said the president of Kroger's Louisville division". The Louisville division includes 14,000 workers in 89 stores in Louisville and Southern Indiana.UK: Retail sales figures in 3.2% boost
Supermarkets are mounting a "slow but steady fightback" as new figures indicated a sharp rise in retail sales last month. Retail like-for-like sales rose by 3.2% year-on-year, according to the British Retail Consortium and KPMG, in the strongest growth since January last year, shropshirestar.com reports. Food sales were the strongest contributor to growth last month, experiencing their strongest trading since July 2013, as shoppers stocked up ahead of the holiday period.Smart & Final expects Q1 sales growth
Smart & Final Stores said Monday a combination of increased transaction counts and larger basket sizes are expected to result in increased sales for the first quarter ending March 22, supermarketnews.com reports. The company said it expects net sales for the quarter of approximately $822mn, an increase of 11.9%, with comparable store sales growing approximately 6.1%. First-quarter sales for the Smart & Final banner are expected to increase 11.9%. Sales for its Cash & Carry banner stores will be approximately $193mn, up 11.7%. Spain: Eroski to promote sourcing of Galician products
Co-operative retailer Eroski has announced that it is going to focus on promoting locally sourced produce at its more than 100 stores in Galicia, retailanalysis.igd.com reports. The retailer said that it purchases produce from more than 600 suppliers based in the region, which means that it invested €410mn in Galicia in 2014. Spain: Covirán spotlights products from three regions
Echoing Eroski’s strategy, Covirán has said that it will be strengthening the buying agreements it has with local producers in Catalonia, Galicia and Extremadura, retailanalysis.igd.com reports. The retailer said that it was reacting to the 'needs of consumers in each area and want to strengthen its range of products with a selection of local products, to boost local businesses'. Portugal: Jerónimo Martins sets out investment plans 2015
Jerónimo Martins’s chairman, Pedro Soares dos Santos, has said that the retailer will invest €500mn in 2015, of which €100mn will be spent in Portugal, retailanalysis.igd.com reports. Part of the outlay will be made in relation to its Amanhecer banner, which could lead to it adding more than 100 stores under the fascia, supported by the opening of a new distribution centre in the north of the country. Spain: Coborn's acquires Marketplace Foods
Coborn’s is expanding its presence in Wisconsin with the acquisition of Marketplace Foods, a four-store grocery and liquor chain in western Wisconsin, supermarketnews.com reports. “By expanding into Wisconsin and adding these four stores into the Coborn’s family, we are experiencing positive, strategic growth for our company,” said Coborn’s president. Russian X5 Retail Group completes integration Pokupochka
X5 Retail Group announced today that the company has completed the successful integration of 103 Pokupochka stores, in the Samara Region, into the store base of Pyaterochka, the company’s proximity store format, eprretailnews.com reports. US: Grocery Union in agreements with Stop & Shop, King Kullen
After six-months of tense negotiations, negotiating committees for United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500 announced they reached tentative agreements with Stop & Shop and King Kullen supermarkets, readmedia.com reports. Over 8,500 New York grocery workers to vote on agreement coming Thursday. India: retail inflation eases
India’s retail inflation surprisingly eased in March to a three-month low as food prices softened, despite the damage to spring harvest in more than 14 states following unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms in the month, raising hopes of further monetary easing by the central bank in its next policy review in June, livemint.com reports. Retail prices rose 5.17% in March, slower than a 5.37% increase in the preceding month. Ireland: Industrial action at Dunnes Stores to escalate
Industrial action at Dunnes Stores by members of the Mandate trade union is expected to escalate in the weeks ahead, irishtimes.com reports. A union spokesman said members were very angry at what they described as retribution undertaken by management against some of those who took part in the recent one-day stoppage at the retailer.Divestment of ICA Norway to Coop Norway completed
Coop Norway has met the conditions imposed by the Norwegian Competition Authority for approval of the acquisition of ICA’s Norwegian grocery operations and the transaction has now been completed, businesswire.com reports. Earlier, the Norwegian Competition Authority announced its approval of Coop Norway’s acquisition of ICA’s Norwegian grocery operations provided Coop Norway sold 93 stores. This condition has now been met and the deal was completed this week.France: Carrefour to convert first Dia supermarket
According to a LSA report, Carrefour has made its move in converting the first of the Dia stores it purchased into a Carrefour branded one, esmmagazine.com writes. The move follows Europe's biggest retailer's acquisition of Dia France late last year. The outlet in Biarritz represents the beginning of two years' worth of supermarket rebranding of more than 800 properties across the country.