Supermarket chain Kroger is making a big commitment to going green. The retailer has published an outline detailing how it plans to become more sustainable by 2020. The retailer plans to optimize its packaging to make it more sustainable and wants to improve transportation efficiency by 20%. (fortune.com)US: Kids can get free fruit at Family Express
Children can get a free piece of fruit when they stop in at local convenience store chain Family Express, which has launched a Free Fruit For Kids program to expand access to healthy food. The Valparaiso-based convenience store, which will have 68 locations by year’s end, will give a free banana, pear or apple to any child age 12 or under for the next two months. (nwitimes.com) Waitrose teams up with British Corner Shop to go international
Waitrose has signed a deal with online food distributor British Corner Shop to make its private label products available to shoppers worldwide. Through the initiative, shoppers in the 138 countries British Corner Shop regularly ships to will be able to order from a range of over 2,000 Waitrose products. (igd.com)US: Fiesta to buy remaining Minyard stores
Houston-based Fiesta Mart on Thursday announced a deal to buy all 11 Minyard Food Stores from owner RLS Supermarkets in the Dallas area. Terms were not disclosed. The acquisition reunites Minyard stores with former RLS CEO Michael Byers, who was named Fiesta Mart's CEO a year ago. (supermarketnews.com)Costco Wholesale net sales increase 3%
Costco Wholesale reported that both total comparable sales and U.S. comparable sales for the month of June 2016 were flat, with a 1 percent increase in Canada, and Other International comparable sales decreased 3 percent. (nasdaq.com) UK: Supply chain excellence fuels Nisa’s return to profit
Nisa Retail announced full year results for 2015/16, posting a return to profitability, with adjusted earnings of £7.3m, on sales of £1,309m. After a 'challenging' year the business has been successfully stabilised with the reduction of central overheads, the exiting of unprofitable accounts and the gaining of new commercial contracts. (igd.com)German Tengelmann sales rise
The Tengelmann group has reported understated sales growth figures for its last fiscal year, which it partly attributed to the ongoing sales of its Kaiser’s supermarket banner. For the year, sales were up 4.5% to €8.24bn on a constant-currency basis. Tengelmann said it is optimistic the Kaiser’s sale will be completed soon, noting that “a basic understanding has been established” in the negotiations to meet the conditions related to the deal. (kamcity.com)Coop Italia remains Italy’s food retail market leader
Coop Italia has confirmed its position as the leading food retailer in Italy, with an 18.7 per cent market share (hyper and super markets) and turnover of €12.5 billion. According to the cooperative’s annual report for 2015, profits rose to €144 million in 2015. UK: Lidl to be named supermarket of the year
Lidl is to be named supermarket of the year. It is the first time that Lidl has been named supermarket of the year by the Good Housekeeping Institute. The two runners up were Aldi and Waitrose, so leaving the ‘big four’ of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons out of the picture. (dailymail.co.uk)Amazon laughs in the face of Brexit
‘Business as usual’ was Amazon’s very pragmatic response to Brexit today. “Our sales are in line with expectations. It’s business as usual as far as we are concerned,” said Amazon UK’s newly appointed chief, Doug Gurr. (thememo.com) A Japanese supermarket paid $366 per single grape
A cluster of simple grapes sold at auction for 1.1 million yen (about $11,000) in Japan today, July 7. According to The Japan Times, the person who placed the record-breaking bid was representing Kurashi Kaientai supermarket in Hyogo prefecture. He told reporters that the bunch of about 30 individual Ruby Roman grapes will be put on display at the store, and given out to shoppers for free. That’s about $366 per grape. (qz.com)
Roundy’s accepts first BrightFarms shipmentPlease, click here to read the article.