The news of European retailer Lidl opening a new regional headquarters and distribution center in Alamance County was made official Wednesday in press releases by Lidl and Gov. Pat McCrory, thetimesnews.com reports. Graham’s City Council approved the establishment of Lidl’s facilities in May, shortly after the approval by Mebane and Alamance County. This paved the way for the supermarket chain to begin construction plans for a $125m facility at the N.C. Commerce Park, totalling 850,000 square feet on an 83,334-acre tract. Lidl said that North Carolina will play a key role as the company begins its plans to enter the U.S. market. Spar updates packaging of fresh products
According to gondola.be, Spar hopes to become fresh product specialists and increase their range of products by updating their own brand’s fresh products. This includes ready meals, fruit and vegetables, fish, dairy and eggs, bread, cheese and dried meats. New packaging will be developed as well as new products. Eventually the Spar brand will have 600 or so products. The retailer claims that the new packaging will have “a modern style, simple and pure, underlining the feel of freshness whilst giving it a premium touch”. Auchan, Carrefour and Casino to open stores in Africa and Middle East
Lsa-conso.fr reports that for many months now Auchan has not only shown interest in opening stores in China, but in Senegal and Mauritania too. A 1,500 m2 store has just opened in Mauritiana (under the local 
franchise Atac) and 20 or so more are planned for the next five years. An Atac store has also opened in Dakar and others will too in Senegal. Carrefour have been expanding in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Gulf. According to the Director General of CFAO retail, Xavier Desjobert, the CFAO group (who work with Carrefour since 2013) hope to open almost 100 Carrefour stores 
in Africa (of which 30 are shopping centres) over the next decade. Last year the Casino group (who have about 110 stores in the Maghreb and Middle East) announced a 10,000m2 Géant hypermarket in Abu Dhabi’s largest shopping centre. In 2015 they will be opening 3 Géant hypermarkets in the UAE and 10 in Tunisia. Lenta another supermarket in Moscow
"Lenta", the sixth-largest retail chain in Russia, has opened a new supermarket in Moscow, anrt.info reports. With the opening of this new store, which offers a range of 4.7 thousand products, the retailer has a network of 116 hypermarkets and supermarkets in 62 cities nationwide, of which 27 are in Moscow. Metro Cash & Carry set for rapid expansion in India
German business-to-business wholesaler Metro Cash & Carry is set for a rapid expansion in India where it is marking its 12 years of its entry into India, business-standard.com reports. The Indian arm plans to open six or seven distribution centres annually for the next five years, for a target of 50 by 2020. The investment for these would be in the range of Rs 2,500 crore, a top company official said.IGD: Chinese online grocery market to be worth $180bn by 2020
The Chinese online grocery market is set to be worth almost $180bn by 2020, according to the latest IGD research, esmmagazine.com reports. The figure represents nearly five times its current value of $41bn, in what is the world's largest online grocery market. The IGD findings also revealed that by 2020, online grocery in China will be worth almost $70bn more than the other top nine online grocery markets combined, with the UK online grocery the world’s second largest, at $28bn. Joanne Denney-Finch, IGD chief executive, said, "There’s going to be significant growth across all of the top ten online grocery markets. This is being driven by busy shoppers making the most of more digital technologies and the rising trend of ‘anywhere, anytime shoppers’. They add to their online shopping basket over a period of time on whichever device is most handy at that moment.Israel: Court gives Mega 10 days
Supermarket chain Mega is trying to spread out payment of its $344 debt to suppliers, haaretz.com reports. However, the financially troubled supermarket chain was given 10 days’ breathing space on Wednesday by the Central District Court, which allowed the food retailer to convene a meeting of its creditors in an effort to spread out payment of its 1.3-billion-shekel ($344m) debt.Online shoppers often disappointed by freshness
According to a new survey of 1,100 U.S. online grocery shoppers from Door to Door Organics, a leading natural and organic online grocer, 23% of respondents said they do not buy fresh grocery products (e.g., meat, fish, dairy, produce) online, consumergoods.edgl.com reports. Of those who do purchase produce and other fresh grocery items online, 57% said they had been disappointed in the quality or freshness of these purchases at least once in the last year. When asked what would make them feel more secure about the quality of fresh groceries when ordering online, 58% said knowing that the products were recently picked or packaged would increase their confidence, and 51% would be more comfortable if the fresh products were sourced from a local farm. Additionally, 25% said they would feel more secure about the quality of fresh grocery products if they were purchasing them from a specialty online grocer.CA: Loblaw continues to operate despite strike
Loblaw Thursday said it would continue to operate all nine stores affected by labor disruptions, nasdaq.com reports. The nine stores, including five Real Canadian Superstores and four Zehrs Markets, will remain open with some modification to store hours and reduction of some in-store services.Hungarian Tesco’s home delivery expands further
Following expansion to Szeged and Székesfehérvár, Tesco’s home delivery services, known as Tesco Online Shopping, became available in Csepel as of June 15 and Győr as of yesterday, the Hungarian unit of the U.K. retail chain announced yesterday. The current expansion translates as a growing number of jobs at the firm, with the predicted expansion of Tesco’s fleet reaching 100 delivery cars soon, the press release said. (source: bbj.hu)Aeon opens first Indonesian mall
Aeon Mall, a subsidiary of Japan’s largest retailer Aeon Group, recently launched its first shopping mall in Indonesia, financialexpress.com reports. “Indonesian market is expected to grow, supported by the significant economic growth and the increasing middle-class. We want to contribute to the economic growth of Indonesia through our retail business.UK grocery prices set to rise again by year end
UK grocery prices should start to rise again by the end of this year, breaking a deflationary cycle that stretches back to September, Kantar Worldpanel said. The forecast follows a further slowing in the pace of deflation to 1.7% in the 12 weeks ended 21 June, from 1.9% a month ago, the researcher said on 30 June, esmmagazine.com reports.
First Auchan hypermarket in Central Asia
Auchan franchise holder Schiever Tajikistan will receive investment from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for its first Auchan hypermarket in Central Asia, retail-business-review.com reports. EBRD will provide €5m in loan to Schiever Tajikistan, under a loan agreement signed last year. To be spread over an area of around 5,000 m², the proposed hypermarket will sell products at lower prices while maintaining new standards in food quality, hygiene and logistics. So far, the shoppers in the country rely on expensive open-air markets and small shops for their groceries.
US: Whole Foods CEOs admit overcharging fresh cut fruit
Top executives for Austin-based Whole Foods Market issued a video message Wednesday admitting the company overcharged some New York customers and laying out plans to rectify the issue, accessatlanta.com reports. Top executives for Austin-based Whole Foods Market issued a video message Wednesday admitting the company overcharged some New York customers and laying out plans to rectify the issue. They said the chain would implement a 100% customer guarantee to refund shoppers the full price of an item when they find evidence they are overcharged. Mackey said the mistakes have to do with mostly fresh products, such as fresh juices and cut fruit, and there is “a very, very small percentage” of impacted foods that are tied to “misweighing errors.”Lawson’s aggressive expansion in Thailand
Lawson has announced an ambitious expansion target, Lawson expects to increase its presence nationwide and put pressure on its main competitors, 7-Eleven and FamilyMart, igd.com reports. Lawson will also look to improve its in-store offer with additional freshly cooked and ready-to-eat solutions for shoppers.US: Retailers slam Obama’s overtime plan as costing billions
The National Retail Federation says Obama’s proposed rule change to greatly increase how many salaried employees can claim overtime would force companies to use more part-time and entry-level workers, esmmagazine.com reports. Businesses also may offer fewer promotions and convert salaried employees to hourly to avoid raising their pay, the NRF said. “The proposal is going to costbns of dollars,” said Neil Trautwein, vice president for the NRF, the industry’s largest trade group. “It’s going to limit advancement opportunities, and ultimately it will reduce employee benefits.”
US: Kroger president Ellis retires abruptlyIn what appears to be an abrupt parting, Kroger said Tuesday that its president and COO, Mike Ellis, had retired effective immediately, after 40 years of service. A successor would be named at a later date, supermarketnews.com reports.