2017 was an exceptional year for the Rewe Group, according to CEO Lionel Souque. “Our group has grown 3.7bln euro, a record turnover growth.” The CEO is mainly pleased with the fact that the group also published considerable autonomous growth, aside from the acquisition of several Kaiser’s Tengelmann locations, the new Sky formula and a new Rewe Dortmund joint venture. “Rewe managed the highest turnover growth in the supermarket industry, despite being in the highly competitive German food market”, Souque said. The company’s wholesale and supermarket activities generated a 4.4 % autonomous turnover increase. Source: retaildetail.eu
Japan: Aeon's annual profit climbs to 14% record, further rise forecast
Aeon Co Ltd, Japan’s largest retailer by sales, posted a record annual operating profit after a 14% jump from the previous year on the back of restructuring efforts, and forecast a further gain this year. The supermarket and shopping mall company said operating profit for the year that ended in February was 210.3bln yen ($1.97bln). That beat the 204.9bln yen average estimate of eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Source: reuters.com
Carrefour Brasil Q1 gross sales up 6% from year before
Gross sales at food retailer Carrefour Brasil SA rose 6% to 12.289bln reais ($3.6bln) in the first quarter from the year before, according to a securities filing. Same-store sales, a measure of revenue from stores open for at least 12 months, rose 2.3% in the first quarter.Source: reuters.com
Israel: Victory supermarkets open vegan departments
Victory Supermarket Chain Ltd. controlled and managed by CEO Eyal Ravid, is establishing vegan departments in its branches throughout Israel, sources inform “Globes.” Victory began selling vegan products in 10 branches as a pilot in central Israel, and the pilot's success led the chain to expand this activity to most of its branches. Victory's new measure is expanding the deployment of its branches with a vegan department to 60-70% of its branches nationwide, and further expansion will be according to demand. “Obviously, in cities like Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Haifa, and Beer Sheva, where there are more students, interest is greater,” Ravid explains. “The vegan trend is spearheaded by young people, and this is bringing new customers.” Ravid said that Victory's vegan business grew 49% in the first quarter of 2018, compared with the corresponding quarter in 2017.Source: globes.co.il
UAE: Lulu promotes Qatari products
UAE-based Lulu is continuing to support the promotion of local produce in its stores in Qatar. The retailer has launched a “Qatari Potatoes Festival” with the Agricultural Affairs Department. The event will last three days and will be a platform for local farmers to market their products. The event has been created as a response to an increased demand for the vegetable in Qatar. Lulu plans to continually increase its mix of local produce. The retailer has said that at some hypermarkets local products account for 75% of its fresh range.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Auchan to close stores in Italy’s Campania region
Auchan Retail Italia has announced that it is to close down its hypermarkets in Naples and in Catania, in the southern Italian region of Campania. According to the French retailer, the store closures will take place during April and are due to economic factors. Auchan Retail Italia said it is committed to limiting the social impact of the store closures, trying to identify the best solutions for each employee.Source: esmmagazine.com
UK: Nisa Retail Q4 shows benefit of P&H demise
Wholesale distributor, Nisa Retail, has announced trading figures for Q4 of its 2017/18 year (13 weeks to 1 April), reporting total sales for the period up 26.1% to £377mln. However, underlying growth was weaker, down 1.1%. This is perhaps the last quarter that Nisa will report as an independent business, with its acquisition by Co-op expected to complete during Q2, following the Competition & Markets Authority inquiry now in train. Nisa's performance was fundamentally enabled by a rapid increase in the number of the stores being serviced in the quarter, with 1,115 stores added in the course of the three months. The substantial majority of these, 1,039 (including a significant number of Costcutter stores), were stores formerly serviced by competitor Palmer & Harvey, which fell into administration in November 2017. The total number of stores within the Nisa supply network now stands at 4,797, up from 3,466 in 2016/17.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Kenya: Uchumi seeks private equity rescue in fight for survival
Uchumi Supermarkets Plc started talks with a private-equity fund and other investors over a potential capital injection that could help the Kenyan supermarket chain survive a cash crunch. “We’re following different channels of financing,” acting Chief Executive Mohamed Mohamed said in an interview in the capital, Nairobi, declining to name potential suitors. “Where Uchumi is right now, it needs some cash almost immediately. We are looking for a financial investor.”Source: bloombergquint.com
Italy's retail sales rebound in February
Italy's retail sales rebounded in February driven by both food and non-food products turnover, the statistical office Istat reported. Retail sales grew 0.4% month-on-month, in contrast to a 0.5% drop in January. Sales were expected to gain 0.3%. The monthly growth in sales value of food products doubled to 0.4% from 0.2%.Source: markets.businessinsider.com
Retailer Carrefour's Q1 sales growth slows, with France a weak spot
Carrefour said sales growth slowed in the first quarter amid continued weakness in its core French market, reminding investors that the road to recovery for the supermarket retailer would be long. Carrefour, which is Europe’s largest retailer, said sales at its French hypermarkets turned negative again amid bad weather conditions, further stiff competition from traditional and online rivals, and strikes during the Easter holiday. First quarter sales reached 20.776bln euros ($25.73bln), slightly below the median analysts’ estimates for sales of 20.869bln euros in a poll for Reuters compiled by Inquiry Financial.Source: reuters.com
US: Walmart investing $277mln into Texas stores
Walmart announced that it will invest $277mln into its Texas based stores over the next year. The company plans to build 4 new locations across the state, including one in Fort Worth at 5336 Golden Triangle Boulevard. The store will be a super center with a fuel station and online grocery pickup. It's scheduled to open this summer.Source: nbcdfw.com
