US: Instacart delivery expands at Hy-Vee
This week, more Hy-Vee stores will be launching same-day grocery delivery through Instacart. San Francisco-based Instacart said its online grocery delivery service will become available on August 23 from Hy-Vee stores in Muscatine, Ford Madison, Ottumwa, Spencer and Mason City-Clear Lake, Iowa. The expansion follows an eight-market rollout last week with Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Waterloo, Sioux City and Dubuque, Iowa; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Springfield, Missouri; and Manhattan, Kansas.
Source: supermarketnews.com
This week, more Hy-Vee stores will be launching same-day grocery delivery through Instacart. San Francisco-based Instacart said its online grocery delivery service will become available on August 23 from Hy-Vee stores in Muscatine, Ford Madison, Ottumwa, Spencer and Mason City-Clear Lake, Iowa. The expansion follows an eight-market rollout last week with Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Waterloo, Sioux City and Dubuque, Iowa; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Springfield, Missouri; and Manhattan, Kansas.Source: supermarketnews.com
US: Supervalu shareholders approve new structure to assist selling off retail units
Supervalu Inc. shareholders have approved a reorganization of the food distribution firm that is designed to make it easier to sell its retail operations. The decision was the most consequential at a later-than-usual annual meeting last week that, until the company's sale was announced last month, would also have marked the climactic end of a proxy battle between management and an activist shareholder. The shareholder, Blackwells LLC, withdrew an effort to replace Supervalu's board of directors a few days after the Eden Prairie company on July 26 announced it had agreed to be purchased by United Natural Foods Inc., a distributor specializing in organic and natural foods. United Natural Foods offered a 67 percent premium for Supervalu shares. With Supervalu's sale likely to be approved at a later date, shareholders last week overwhelmingly re-elected the company's current directors.Source: startribune.com
Costco now supports Apple Pay across all of its US stores
Apple has landed a big new partner for Apple Pay in the U.S. after Costco began accepting the mobile payment service across 750 stores. The retailer plans to include support at its gas stations, but that isn’t yet complete. The rollout - first reported by MacRumors - follows limited trials at selected Costco outlets, including a warehouse near its corporate headquarters in Washington. This new partnership comes hot on the heels of Apple’s landing similar deals with CVS and 7-Eleven. The deal with CVS is particularly notable since the retailer had held off on supporting the Apple service, to the point that it even developed its own alternative that is based on barcodes. Apple also secured a deal this summer to add Apple Pay support to eBay which gives it more breath among online retailers, too.Source: techcrunch.com
US: Store with tech to rival Amazon Go opens next month
About eight months after Amazon opened its first cashier-less Go store in Seattle, San Francisco-based startup Zippin has launched a small public demo that is expected to grow into a full-sized, AI-enabled convenience store by mid-September, according to a company news release. Like Amazon Go, Zippin relies on sophisticated cameras to track customer movements. However, it also utilizes shelf sensors to ensure that the system accurately records the items that customers select. “Consumer frustration with checkout lines is driving a tidal wave of demand among retailers and real estate owners keen to provide a frictionless retail experience,” founder Krishna Motukuri said in the release. “With annual sales of grocery stores, convenience stores and quick-serve restaurants totaling nearly $1.6tln in the U.S. alone, we believe there is a sizeable market opportunity for us to pursue.”Source: fooddive.com
Nigeria: Spar launches promo to mark 30th anniversary
In commemoration of its 30th anniversary celebration, Spar, a leading chain of supermarket stores, has unveiled “Scratch and Get Free Gifts” promotion to reward its Nigerian shoppers. In a statement, Head of Marketing, Mr. John Goldsmith, said the promo is open throughout August to enable shoppers win and get rewarded with a new Nissan Almera Saloon car and over 750 gift items including TV sets, gas cookers, fridges and laptops, among others. Goldsmith stated: "We are delighted to have been in Nigeria for 30 years. We have enjoyed the support and the patronage of Nigerians and we are reciprocating this good gestures through this promo. The promo will run through the month of August at all Spar outlets nationwide and guarantees a gift for every shopper who spends N5,000 and above in any of our stores."Source: vanguardngr.com
UK: Morrisons regains position as fastest growing of the big four supermarkets, according to Kantar
Morrisons has regained its position as the fastest growing of the big four supermarkets, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel. The growth of branded products has outstripped that of own-label lines for the first time since May 2015 according to the latest grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks to 12 August 2018. Heavily branded categories - such as savoury snacks, ice cream and soft drinks - performed particularly well over the hot summer months, helping branded growth of 3.9% overtake that of total own label. This compares to total grocery market growth of 3.5%.Source: yorkshirepost.co.uk
Poor performance outside South Africa sees Shoprite earnings drop
Retailer Shoprite says although its non-South African operations underperformed over the past financial year, they are still a substantial contributor to the group. The group released the financial results for the year ended July 1, 2018 and reported a decline in earnings. According to the results, diluted headline earnings per share are down 3.8% to 968.7c. Net profit for the year was R5.2bln. Trading profit was down 1.4% to R8bln, compared to R8.13bln reported in 2017. The group declared a dividend of 279 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 484c - compared to 504c reported last year. Overall turnover increased 3.1% to R145.3bln, it was negatively affected by hyperinflation in Angola, CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said. Excluding the adjustment turnover would have grown by 3.6%.
Source: fin24.com
Retailer Shoprite says although its non-South African operations underperformed over the past financial year, they are still a substantial contributor to the group. The group released the financial results for the year ended July 1, 2018 and reported a decline in earnings. According to the results, diluted headline earnings per share are down 3.8% to 968.7c. Net profit for the year was R5.2bln. Trading profit was down 1.4% to R8bln, compared to R8.13bln reported in 2017. The group declared a dividend of 279 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 484c - compared to 504c reported last year. Overall turnover increased 3.1% to R145.3bln, it was negatively affected by hyperinflation in Angola, CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said. Excluding the adjustment turnover would have grown by 3.6%.Source: fin24.com
AFI Europe negotiates EUR 300mln refinancing for biggest mall in Romania
Israeli developer AFI Europe Romania is currently negotiating a EUR 300mln refinancing of its AFI Cotroceni mall in Bucharest, the biggest mall in Romania with over 90,000 sqm of leasable area. The mall is also the most valuable asset in the company’s portfolio and was valued at EUR 501mln, according to the company’s financial reports. The group has ongoing negotiations with two international banks, local Profit.ro reported.Source: romania-insider.com
Online grocery retail in Asia set to double by 2022: IGD
A new report by market research firm IGD suggests that growth of the online grocery channel in Asian countries could reach new highs in the next four years. The online channel, which represents 3.2% of total grocery sales in Asia, could double by 2022, IGD said, accounting for 6.9% of the market - more than double its current share. Across Asia’s top 12 grocery markets, the value of e-commerce sales will rise to $267bln, up from its current value of $91bln, representing an annual growth of 24.1%, the report says. As the biggest retail market both regionally and globally, China is expected to see the majority of that growth. The Chinese online retail market is already three times as big as the US market, and IGD estimates that will grow by a further 286% to 2022, representing 11% of all grocery sales, up from 3.8% currently.Source: esmmagazine.com
India: Flipkart acquires AI startup Liv.ai to start the ‘voice’ revolution
Online retailer Flipkart has acquired AI-led speech recognition Liv.ai in a bid to target the next 200mln online shoppers, said the company. As part of this acquisition, the 20-member team of Liv will be part of Flipkart’s ‘voice solutions’ team and help accelerate an end-to- end conversational shopping experience for its users. Voice integration could be available in some parts of the Flipkart platform as early as 6-8 months. Launched in 2015 by three IIT-Kharagpur graduates, Subodh Kumar, Kishore Mundra and Sanjeev Kumar, Liv claims to be the only company in India to be able to convert speech to text in nine regional languages including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and Tamil, apart from English. Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com