Lidl Croatia has become the second-largest grocery retailer in the country, based on 2016 sales results, according to the latest data from the Financial Agency (FINA). Nine of the ten leading grocery retailers in Croatia ended 2016 with increased revenue on 2015, with the exception of Plodine, which saw sales fall by 0.27%. This enabled Lidl to move into second place, but T-Portal reports that this position could be threatened by Spar by the end of 2017. (esmmagazine.com) China's Yida interested in Italy's supermarket chain
Chinese Group Yida International Investment has formally expressed interest in Esselunga, Italy's fourth-largest supermarket chain, Italian daily la Repubblica reported on Thursday. The offer for the supermarket chain amounts to € 7.5bn, higher than a valuation of € 4bn to € 6bn made by private equity funds Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners in September, ahead of the death of 90-year old founder and owner Bernardo Caprotti. (Reuters)Lidl to open first ten US stores today; sells mangoes for 39 cents
Lidl is opening its first ten stores in the US today (Thursday 15 June), with a range of offers that the retailer equates to 'Black Friday deals on a Thursday'. Stores in Kinston, Greenville, Sanford, Wilson and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Spartanburg and Greenville, South Carolina; and Virginia Beach and Hampton, Virginia, will open their doors at 8am local time. Among the opening promotions are pineapples for 89 cents, mangoes for 39 cents. Initial stores will be in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, however, the list of planned and proposed outlets is longer still, incorporating sites in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Texas, as indicated by an infographic developed by US-based analytics firm Planned Grocery. (esmmagazine.com) 
South Korea's E-mart to withdraw from Chinese market
E-mart will reportedly fully withdraw from the Chinese market. There were rumors in recent months that E-mart would close its Chinese business, and now reports in South Korean local media state the company has made the decision to end its China incursion. (chinaretailnews.com)Scottish retailers ''worried' by rise in vacant shop rate
A surge in food sales helped to offset a poorer performance from other parts of Scotland's retail sector last month, a report has found. Grocery sales in May grew year-on-year by 4.5% - the fastest food sales increase since July 2013. That contrasted with a 3.8% drop in non-food sales. As a result, total sales in Scotland were down by 0.2% on a year ago, according to the latest Scottish Retail Consortium-KPMG sales monitor. Scottish Retail Consortium director David Lonsdale said: "Grocery sales did well again, with the category recording its fastest growth in almost four years. (BBC) Portugal: Coviran achieves gross sales of €1.26bn in 2016
Portuguese cooperative Coviran achieved gross sales under the banner of €1,260 million in 2016, according to its annual results. Of the retailer's full-year sales, about €106 million was generated in Portugal and €1,154m in Spain. In addition, the cooperative also invested €9m to improve and modernise its stores, and implement technology into the in-store environment. Looking ahead to the coming year, Coviran revealed that it is potentially looking at opening a logistics centre in Catalonia. (esmmagazine.com)Chinese pay 1000 per cent mark-up for Woolies products
Woolworths has launched a new bid for China’s insatiable demand for Australian groceries, inking a deal to ship its homebrand products to feed the nation’s growing middle class. And Chinese shoppers are willing to pay big bucks for the normally-cheap products, which are marked up by as much as 1000 per cent. The supermarket giant has set up an online store at Kaola.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms, selling its products direct to Chinese consumers. (news.com.au) 
How much money South Africa’s biggest supermarkets made in 2016Please, click here to read the article.
US: Wegmans partners with Instacart
The San Francisco-based startup has inked a deal to deliver groceries on behalf of Wegmans, the family-run east coast grocery chain that has just 92 stores but $8.4 billion in annual sales and an outsized cult following. The partnership will start in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of northern Virginia and Maryland and expand to other markets including the Boston area in the near future. (cnbc.com) US: Door to Door Organics names Demko CEO
Door to Door Organics, a meal planning and natural and organic grocery delivery service, has named Mike Demko as its new CEO. Demko will succeed interim CEO Stefan Pepe who was recently named chairman for the Louisville, Colo.-based retailer. (supermarketnews.com) The US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index announced
Wednesday confirmed anecdotal remarks of food retailers over recent weeks that food deflation was gradually abating, with prices for food at home down by 0.2% in May as compared with last year. Within the CPI basket, the fresh produce index showed 1.5% gains in the month, up from 1.4% in April, while fruit prices gained by 0.3%. (supermarketnews.com) US: Marsh to begin store-closing sales at 18 unsold locations
Marsh Supermarkets is preparing to close all of its stores that failed to attract bidders this week. The grocer on Thursday will begin liquidation sales at 18 stores, "continuing until the inventory is sold, most likely in early July," said Thomas Mulligan of Sitrick And Co., a New York-based firm that has been hired to handle communications during Marsh's bankruptcy. The store-closing sales are moving forward at the same time 26 other Marsh stores are about to get new life. Kroger Co. is planning to buy 11 of Marsh's 44 remaining stores for $16 million. Another grocer, Findlay, Ohio-based Fresh Encounter, has agreed to buy 15 Marsh stores. (indystar.com)