Publix Super Markets will acquire a lease of a closing Bi-Lo store in Seneca, South Carolina, according to a filing from Southeastern’s bankruptcy proceedings. Publix would pay $100,000 for the lease for site, expiring in 2021, along with fixtures, equipment, permits and licenses associated with the store. The Seneca store was among 94 stores that Southeastern said in March would close.Source: winsightgrocerybusiness.com
US: Schnucks closing 2 Illinois stores
St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets Inc. plans to permanently close two of its Rockford, Illinois, stores this summer. The Mulford Road and Rockton stores are expected to close July 8. The 172 affected employees (97 at Rockton and 75 at Mulford) will be offered positions at the same rate of pay at neighboring Rockford Schnucks stores. Low sales and the costly operation of the two older facilities factored heavily into the company’s decision.Source: progressivegrocer.com
Carrefour: as much revenue in Romania as in Poland with fewer stores
Retailer Carrefour posted EUR1.8bln revenue in Romania last year, generated by 320 stores. Its Polish revenue was the same but generated by three times as many stores. French-held Carrefour is the second largest retailer in Romania by revenue after Germany’s Kaufland. Carrefour posted almost EUR1.8bln revenue in 2017, 18.7% higher than in 2016, according to its latest annual report. It had more than 320 stores across three formats – hypermarkets (33), supermarkets (237) and convenience stores (53) in Romania at the end of last year. Carrefour has three times more stores in Poland, the most developed economy in the region, which has twice Romania’s population.Source: agroberichtenbuitenland.nl
India: Reliance Retail sales cross $10bln mark
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail more than doubled revenue during the year ended March, becoming the first retailer in India to cross the $10bln sales mark. At ₹69,198crore, Reliance Retail’s revenue in the previous financial year exceeded the combined sales of rivals Future Group, Avenue Supermart, Shoppers Stop and Tata Trent. Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
New store openings boost Despar Italia growth in 2017
Despar Italia ended 2017 with a 3% growth in turnover to €3.38bln, continuing the positive trend from the past two years. The results place the retailer among the top 10 players in Italy’s grocery retail sector. The country is the third biggest international market for Spar. One of the factors that contributed to the positive performance, according to the retailer, was the opening of 56 new stores last year, taking the total to 1,215 outlets, representing a 4.8% growth year on year. Despar Italia invested €80mln in 2017, a figure that includes new stores, warehouses, logistics infrastructure and the restyling of existing supermarkets.Source: esmmagazine.com
ICA Gruppen posts 'slightly weaker than expected' Q1 sales growth
Swedish retailer ICA Gruppen has reported a 5.8% increase in its consolidated net sales, amounting to SEK 27,181mln (€25,703mln), for the first quarter of the 2018 financial year. According to the CEO of ICA Gruppen, Per Strömberg, these results were "slightly weaker" than the group had expected. "We had a favourable sales performance in Sweden during the quarter, and our e-commerce shows very good growth. However, we are getting too little return from this sales growth," he said.Source: esmmagazine.com
India: Future Group to launch ecommerce app
India’s biggest retailer, Future Group, is all set to launch an ecommerce application for Easyday members, mimicking Amazon’s paid subscription service Amazon Prime. The chain owned by Kishore Biyani will target the daily and weekly requirements of consumers such as fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy items and others. This step was taken to compete with online grocery delivery firms such as BigBasket, Grofers and even larger players like Amazon Now and Amazon Pantry.Source: agronfoodprocessing.com
Slovenian Mercator's cons net loss more than doubles in 2017
Slovenian retailer Mercator said its consolidated net loss widened to 184.4mln euro ($224.7mln) in 2017, from a loss of 72.7mln euro a year earlier. Adjusting for the negative effect of non-recurring, one-off events, Mercator Group ended last year with a profit of 6mln euro, it said in a filing with the Ljubljana bourse. In 2017, Mercator's sales revenue totalled 2.15bln euro, down by an annual 2.2%, due mainly to changes in the accounting policy of the group.Source: seenews.com
Carrefour Belgium aims to be ‘First in Fresh’
As part of an exclusive collaboration with Greenyard, a producer of fresh, frozen and prepared fruit and vegetables, amongst other products, Carrefour Belgium is looking to drive improvements in its supply of fresh ranges. The two companies have said the collaboration, which has been launched under the name ‘First in Fresh’, will allow store managers to buy fresh products in individual portions. To enable the initiative, Greenyard has built a distribution centre in Sint-Katelijne-Waver from which orders from Carrefour stores are collated and distributed. Store owners will now be able to make orders five times a week, with various Carrefour suppliers delivering to the Sint-Katelijne-Waver distribution centre, from which orders are put together at an individual store level. Source: retailanalysis.igd.com UK: Sainsbury’s reports higher sales but warns bank profits will take a hit this year
Sainsbury’s grew sales and profits last year, while reducing debt by £113mln, helped by a record performance over the Christmas period. The group posted a 9% increase in sales for the 52 weeks to 10 March, from £29.1bln in 2016/17 to £31.7bln. Underlying pre-tax profit was up 1.4% to £589mln from £581mln, and basic earnings per share fell by 6.4% to 20.4p from 21.8p.Source: independent.co.uk
Russia: X5 opens first Karusel under new concept
X5 Retail Group N.V. ("X5" or the "Company"), a leading Russian food retailer, announces the opening of its first new concept Karusel hypermarket. The new hypermarket, located in the Moscow region's Sergiyev Posad (29 Vifanskaya St.) boasts a sales floor of more than 4,000 sq m. The store offers 20,500 SKUs, with about 20% of the mix sourced locally from the Moscow region. This is the 14th Karusel hypermarket in the Moscow region. With its launch, 184 new jobs were created.Source: lse.co.uk