US: Aldi to expand Ohio warehouse
Aldi said its ongoing growth would result in an expansion of its warehouse and an associated 60 new jobs in Hinckley, Ohio. State and local economic development authorities this week approved a six-year tax credit to support the expansion, which includes new equipment and machinery at the facility. “As Aldi continues to grow, we’re excited to expand employment opportunities at our Hinckley distribution center, and we’re proud to be an employer of choice in the state of Ohio and across the U.S.,” said Corey Stucker, VP of Aldi’s division in Hinckley, a suburb about 25 miles south of Cleveland.
Source: winsightgrocerybusiness.com
Aldi said its ongoing growth would result in an expansion of its warehouse and an associated 60 new jobs in Hinckley, Ohio. State and local economic development authorities this week approved a six-year tax credit to support the expansion, which includes new equipment and machinery at the facility. “As Aldi continues to grow, we’re excited to expand employment opportunities at our Hinckley distribution center, and we’re proud to be an employer of choice in the state of Ohio and across the U.S.,” said Corey Stucker, VP of Aldi’s division in Hinckley, a suburb about 25 miles south of Cleveland. Source: winsightgrocerybusiness.com
US: Shipt expands delivery with Lidl to Northern Virginia
Shipt, a leading online grocery marketplace, announced they will be expanding with Lidl, one of the world’s largest retailers. Starting May 22, Shipt will begin home delivery from Lidl stores in Ashburn, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Woodbridge, Va. to residents in the surrounding area. Cumulatively, the expansion gives more than 360,000 households in Northern Virginia access to Lidl products, such as fresh foods and household essentials, delivered by Shipt in as little as one hour. Source: globenewswire.com
Australia: Coles and Woolworths continue to gain share in fresh fruit and vegetable market
Analysis of long-term market trends shows that in 2018 Australia’s two largest supermarkets captured more than 51% of Australia’s $18bln fresh fruit and vegetable market between them. Market leader Woolworths Group with a 27.4% share, up 1.3% points since 2017, and Coles Group with a 23.9% share, down 0.7% points, had a combined share of the fresh fruit and vegetable market larger than all other retail outlets including rival supermarkets Aldi and IGA, fruit shops, markets, other supermarkets and other non-supermarkets combined. Woolworths enjoyed stronger growth in the fresh fruit and vegetable market over the past year than rival Coles, who despite increasing their number of buyers in an average seven day period had a decrease in the share of market. Source: roymorgan.com
Ireland: SuperValu owner sees profits rise to €80mln
Retail and wholesale group Musgrave made a pretax profit of €80mln in the year to December 30, on sales of €3.7bln. Profits were up 9% on 2016 and the business was sitting on net cash of €71mln at year end, and net assets of €330mln. The accounts show Musgrave’s SuperValu brand, which is now the biggest grocery chain in the Republic, recorded sales of €2.7bln - a record for the brand. Centra recorded sales of €1.58bln in 2017 in the year. "We have delivered a strong financial performance, reporting a third consecutive year of profit growth with sales also performing well despite on-going food deflation," Group CEO Chris Martin said.Source: independent.ie
India: Future Retail buys Foodworld supermarket chain
Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Retail has bought Foodworld, a supermarket chain that is popular in Bangalore, for 407,900,000Rs (5,996,332USD) in cash. The acquisition of the grocery-focused retail chain will strengthen Biyani’s existing portfolio of supermarkets, particularly the smaller stores under the EasyDay brand. Foodworld had revenue of 1,190,000,000Rs (17,493,314USD) for the year ended March 2018, down from 1,300,000,000Rs (19,109,860USD) in the previous year and 1,410,000,000Rs (20,639,317USD) in the year before that.Source: ultra.news
Russia: X5 Retail Group introduces automated planograms to boost sales
Russian food retailer X5 Retail Group has introduced a system that provides automated generation of planograms after a three month trial period. X5 Retail Group said that after three months of use the new system has helped increase sales by up to 10.5% in some categories. In addition to higher sales, the new planograms also lower operating costs by optimising employee’s work. Assortments are monitored and adapted when needed.Source: esmmagazine.com
Northern Ireland owner of retail giant Spar reports annual sales of over £750mln
The parent company of retail giant Spar in Northern Ireland has reported turnover of £759mln during 2017 - up 8.5% from £699mln a year earlier. However, pre-tax profits at John Henderson (Holdings), led by Geoff and Martin Agnew, were down slightly from £20.3mln to £20.04mln. Geoffrey and Martin are the great-grandsons of the founder John Henderson, who started the business as a bread and milk wholesaler in St George's Market in 1897. During 2017, staff numbers also expanded from 2,998 to 3,387. The company is the group company of subsidiaries including Henderson Wholesale, owner of the franchise for Spar, Eurospar and Vivo. It provides marketing and distribution to over 450 grocery retailers.Source: belfasttelegraph.co.uk
UK-based Whisk acquires Germany’s Avocando
After building a data platform to run food-related mobile apps, U.K.-based Whisk has acquired Germany-based Avocando. While the terms of the deal were not made public, Whisk may be acquiring Avocando’s team, customer base, technology and integrations, TechCrunch reported. “We’re delighted to build on a strong year of growth with this deal,” Whisk CEO Nick Holzherr said in a post announcing the purchase. “With grocery eCommerce in Europe accelerating, it makes a lot of sense for both Whisk and Avocando customers.”Source: pymnts.com
South Korea: Lotte outlines KRW3tn ecommerce investment
Lotte has announced plans to invest KRW3tn (US$2.8bln) into its ecommerce operations. After a challenging 2017 and Lotte Mart operations in China all but sold, Lotte has turned its attention to integrating its online businesses to drive future growth. The new online shopping platform will integrate all eight of its online stores by 2020. The Group plans to invest KRW500bln to develop its online and mobile service platform, KRW1tn to optimise distribution and logistics and KRW1.5tn for marketing. Lotte Group will form a division in August to develop its ecommerce business.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Aldi and Lidl named 'most dynamic stores' in Portugal
Discounters Aldi and Lidl were the 'most dynamic and attractive stores' in Portugal last year, according to the latest edition of the the Brands + Consumers Barometer, published by the Portuguese brands association Centromarca in partnership with Kantar Worldpanel. While much of Lidl's investment was focused on its private label brands, Aldi has brought more mainstream brands into its offering, the study found. While the overall FMCG market posted a 2.7% decline last year, Lidl and Aldi bucked the trend, with a 8.9% and 28.5% growth in sales, respectively. Lidl currently boasts a 77.4% penetration rate in the Portuguese market, compared to 24.6% for Aldi.Source: esmmagazine.com