Russian retailer Auchan considering Syrian fruit, veg

EngroTuš has been named the top promoter of Slovenian products among the country’s main food retailers in a study commissioned by Slovenia’s food-chain ombudsman. Some 58.8% of EngroTuš's advertising was dedicated to Slovenian products. (esmmagazine.com)

Mercator CG, owned by Croatian consortium Agrokor, has invested over €50m in Montenegro, where it has reported good operating results. In an interview for local newspaper Pobjeda, Mercator CG CEO, Ivan Karadžić, said the company currently operates 103 stores in 16 municipalities across Montenegro, employing 1,500 people. (esmmagazine.com)

The sales figures from the supermarket sector fell by 1.61% in February compared to January of this year, but reflects an increase of 2.92% compared to February 2015, according to the National Index Sales of the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets. (riotimesonline.com)

The discounter Lidl outspent its rivals in terms of supermarket advertising spend in the final quarter of last year, according to the latest Ad Tracker report produced for Checkout magazine by Nielsen. According to the report, Lidl accounted for 23.2pts of supermarket ad spend share in the quarter, having increased its spend by 45.4% compared to the same period the previous year. It was the second successive quarter in which Lidl was the biggest spender on advertising. Tesco was second followed by Aldi. (adworld.ie)

Separate class-action lawsuits filed this week allege that Sprouts Farmers Market misled investors when it executed a secondary stock offering a year ago by not disclosing the extent to which produce deflation would impact its sales results and stock price. (supermarketnews.com)

Russian retailer Auchan is considering buying fruit and vegetables from Syria, writes business-gazeta.ru. Director of Communications Mary Kurnosov stated ‘’We are looking at propositions for buying fruit and vegetables from Syria from several companies. We are looking over these propositions, but we have not yet taken any decisions.’’ Presently Auchan isn’t buying products from Syria. Deliveries of Syrian vegetables to Russia have already begun, as they serve to partially replace banned Turkish produce. The company Adyg-Jurack is importing them.

Spanish Eroski hopes to resume construction of Ourense shopping centre
Spanish retailer Eroski says it is eager to resume an ambitious project for 2017; the construction of a large shopping centre in the Galician province of Ourense. The proposed development would feature a hypermarket, 80 shops and 2,472 parking spots. The company is waiting for the Consello de Ourense (Ourense's local council) to approve the Plan Xeral de Ordenaxión Municipal (PXOM), which would grant the retailer permission to build its shopping centre on the proposed site. Having already invested €30 million out of an expected €100 million in the project, a representative for Eroski told Galician newspaper Faro De Vigo, "There is no going back." (esmmagazine.com)

Majid Al Futtaim expands in Oman and Pakistan
Majid Al Futtaim has opened its seventh Carrefour hypermarket in Nizwa, Oman, and its first Hyperstar hypermarket in Islamabad, Pakistan. The 5,000 sq. m store in Oman is part of a shopping centre in the city, while the 6,000 sq. m store in Pakistan is in Islamabad's World Trade Centre. The opening of the two hypermarkets maintains Majid Al Futtaim’s continued expansion strategy, which saw it open nine new hypermarkets and 11 new supermarkets in its 2015 financial year. (igd.com)

Al Meera to open six stores
Al Meera has announced it has signed agreements with two parties that will lead to the building of six new stores. The retailer aims to open 14 stores in the next two years, as it aims to reach of total of 55, with the six already identified to be added in Al Khor, Azghawa, Leabaib, Rawdat Abal Heeran, Saileya and Umm Qarn. Al Meera has said it will invest QAR238.7m (US$65.5m) in the building of the six stores and associated shopping centres. (igd.com)

Uchumi closes further outlets as it looks to cut costs
Kenya-based Uchumi, which continues to deal with the fallout from alleged accounting irregularities, has announced that it has closed five stores as part of its ongoing reorganisation process. The retailer said that the closure of the five stores, in Embu, Eldoret Sugarland, Kisii, Nakuru and Taj Mall, will help it cut costs and help it back on its path to recovery. (igd.com)

CFAO to invest in Cameroon
Following the opening of its first Carrefour branded store in January 2016, as part of a shopping centre in Cote d'Ivoire, speculation suggests that CFAO will invest some US$500m in the building of 20 further shopping centres across Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. The reports suggests that the company will open five stores in Cameroon initially as it looks to build a presence in the country. (igd.com)

Choppies maintains expansion strategy in Zimbabwe
Botswana-based Choppies has said that it will maintain its pace of expansion in the short term as it opened its 17th store in Bulawayo and its 29th in the country overall. Zimbabwe has been a success for Choppies since it entered the country in 2013, with revenues rising 49% to BWP587m (US$51.8m) in its recently announced results. Choppies has a medium term aim to operate 50 stores in the country, with further stores set to be opened in the 2016 calendar year, in Gokwe in April, and then in parts of Harare where it does not operate later on. (igd.com)