Retailers need to figure out how to cater to the growing population of Millennials, although Millennials don’t follow any rules, a speaker told the National Grocers Association Monday at its annual convention in Las Vegas. “They put a high priority on natural and organic, but they expect value,” Stephanie Steiner, sales director for Unified Grocers, Los Angeles, said. (supermarketnews.com)Ahold Delhaize to use predicate "Royal" after merger
Ahold today announced that His Majesty the King of the Netherlands has honored its request to use the predicate "Koninklijke" ("Royal") after its intended merger with Delhaize 
Group. Upon completion of the proposed merger, the statutory name of the combined company will be "Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V." (benzinga.com)Swedish supermarket sells grapes with toilet bleach
A supermarket has put chemically-sprayed fruit on the same shelf as cleaning products as part of a campaign to encourage Swedes to buy and sell ecological goods and label foods fairly. Customers looking for non-organic green grapes at the store in Täby, Stockholm, were surprised to find them stacked up close to bleach, toilet fresheners and washing powders as the new week got under way, alongside a strongly-worded message. (thelocal.se)Migros East Switzerland: Importance of regional food is growing
According to Migros the importance of locally sourced food continues to grow. The revenue of the program “From the region. For the region.” increased with more than average numbers. Compared to the slightly decreasing total revenues of the supermarket, the revenue of regional program increased with 5.9% to 226m CHF (about $226m). In the Migros stores in East Switzerland the “From the region. For the region.” program achieved a share of 14.5% of the total food and fresh range. The Migros stores in East Switzerland stock 1,517 regional products. (bauernzeitung.ch)Russian X5 Retail Group expands and renovates
Russia’s second largest grocery retailer, X5 Retail Group is opening 5 new supermarkets under the Perekrestok chain and renovating 10 others in St Petersburg, according to news site, dp.ru. The modernisation of the stores is set to increase sales by no less than 5%. The company have already renovated 16 Perekrestok stores and states that consumers like the concept; which increase sales on average by 4.7% but certain stores have seen an increase of as much as 15%. Store renovations began last year and will continue for another 2 years. There are 47 Perekrestok stores in the St Petersburg region and although the costs of the renovations have not been disclosed, experts predict they are in the hundreds of millions of roubles.France: Carrefour acquires stores from Auchan and Cora
Carrefour has filed a request with France's Antitrust Authority to acquire four Match supermarkets from Cora-Louis Delhaize, as the latter seeks to rationalise its store base. Carrefour and Cora entered into a buying alliance in 2015, covering operations in France, with both retailers looking to enhance their competitiveness. Carrefour is also to acquire two franchised Simply Market stores, from Auchan, in the Seine-et-Marne region. (igd.com)Serbia: Aman imports Intermarché products
Serbian retailer Aman has begun to import products from Intermarché, following Aman’s acquisition of Intermarché hypermarkets in Serbia, according to local reports. Products that are now present in Aman’s stores include Intermarché’s Apta, Netto, Saint Eloi and Top Budget brands, amongst others.Indonesia: Hero Supermarket to shut Starmart stores
Indonesian retailer Hero Supermarket plans to shut down its convenience store business arm Starmart due to a disappointing performance, the company’s chief said. (jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com)Corsica: Carrefour takes control of franchisee
It emerged in February that Carrefour has taken full control of its Corsican franchisee. This consists of four stores (one hypermarket and three supermarkets) which turned over around €118m in 2014. (igd.com)AU: Aldi to focus more on store network instead of online
Aldi in Australia has announced that it is to close its online liquor store, in order to focus its attention on the expansion into South and Western Australia. Aldi instead will focus more attention on growing its store network, according to the company. (igd.com)
SPAR Austria reports strong sales
Sales in SPAR Austria's home market increased by 3.2% in 2015, while its operations outside of Austria increased by 4.6%. SPAR Austria generated a turnover of €6.1bn in 2015 and now has 1,615 stores across Austria, up from 1,599 in 2014. In particular, the strong performance of its private label products has helped to drive this strong sales growth, with the total share of private label turnover now around 39%. (igd.com)Israeli supermarket chain Shufersal Q4 profit nearly doubles
Shufersal, Israel's largest supermarket chain, reported a near doubling of quarterly profit boosted by growth of its own private brand and efficiency measures after a change of strategy. Shufersal on Monday said it earned 77m shekels ($20m) in the fourth quarter, up from 42m a year earlier. Revenue grew 4% to 2.92bn shekels. (Reuters)Lidl Portugal to focus on Portuguese fruit
After opening its refurbished store in Matosinhos last year, Lidl will continue with the roll-out of its new store concept in Portugal throughout 2016. The visibility of Portuguese products has been further reinforced by the introduction of a national flag next to them. In the fruit and vegetable department, 70% of sales come from domestic products. Lidl Portugal has also doubled the volume of pear exports to Germany to 7,500 tonnes. Over the past two years, it exported 12,000 tonnes of pear to five markets - Germany, Spain, France, UK and Ireland. (esmmagazine.com)'Fresh enhances c-store ambience'
Offering fresh and prepared foods in a convenience store raises the level of customer expectations and can boost sales, Rich Niemann 3rd told a workshop audience Monday during the annual convention of the National Grocers Association in Las Vegas. When Niemann Foods, Quincy, Ill., decided to reassess its Harvest Markets convenience-store division a few years ago, “we realized what we were missing was fresh and prepared foods. Fresh is important. It sets the tone for what customers look for, and those items have been better received than I expected.” (supermarketnews.com) UK: Lidl appoints W to support expansion plans and own-label brands
W’s brief covers press office, consumer and corporate comms and CSR. W won the account after a competitive pitch run by agency-client intermediary AAR, which began in November. Lidl had said it would consider taking on two agencies to fill the brief. On consumer comms, W will promote Lidl's own-label products, particularly its wine and fashion brands. (prweek.com)
Powerful supermarkets push the cost of food waste onto suppliers, charitiesPlease, click here to read the article.