The date has been revealed for the closure of two Greater Manchester Marks and Spencer stores. The branch in the Merseyway Shopping Centre, in Stockport, and an outlet store at the Crown Point Retail Park in Denton, will be closing on April 21. The high street giant said staff at both stores will be redeployed to other branches.Source: manchestereveningnews.co.uk
JD.com cooperates with FamilyMart China
The retailer is collaborating with FamilyMart China, offering online purchase and delivery services from over 200 FamilyMart stores. JD’s new deal allows consumers to order products through its O2O grocery app, Daojia. Products will be delivered from FamilyMart stores within 30 minutes and available 24 hours.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Italy: Sales up 3.1% in 2017 for Esselunga
Italy-based Esselunga has announced its results for 2017 saying sales rose 3.1% to €7.75 bln. Esselunga said that its stores had enjoyed a 5% rise in shopper traffic, meaning it met the needs of 5.6mln people. The retailer also said ecommerce sales had reached €180mln. In 2017 Esselunga said it had invested €439mln on the opening of four new stores, including its first in Rome, taking its store count to over 150.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
France: Carrefour posts loss for 2017 on one-time charges
Carrefour SA said that it posted a net loss in 2017, principally due to non-recurring charges. The company said its net loss for the year was 531mln euros ($652.7mln), compared with a profit of EUR746mln the year earlier. Carrefour said the loss was mainly due to non-recurring charges totaling EUR1.3bln, including a charge corresponding to depreciation in Italy and depreciation of assets linked to the former DIA store network. Last month the French retailer said its full-year 2017 sales rose 3% to EUR88.2bln.Source: marketwatch.com
Profit soars for 7-Eleven Malaysia
Fourth-quarter profit has soared for 7-Eleven Malaysia following modest sales growth. Its net profit shot up 66.5% as total sales growth rose 4.3% or the quarter and average customer spend grew 1.5%. The convenience store chain’s gross profit margin continues to improve, it reports. With 126 stores opening last year and 23 stores closing, the network totalled 2,225 outlets at the end of December.Source: insideretail.asia
Italy: SUN sees good growth in 2017
Supermercati Uniti Nazionali (SUN) said its turnover hit €2.82bln in 2017, versus €2.69bln in 2016. The pace of growth, according to SUN, meant its market share in Italy reached 3.4% in 2017 versus 3.3% in 2016. SUN said it expected revenue to reach €2.98bln by the end of 2018, which would mean its market share would reach 3.6%. Expansion will play a key role for SUN, with it and its members expecting to invest €55mln to add new stores and update existing ones. It said that it expected to operate 610 stores by the end of 2018, up from 571 at the end of 2016.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Landmark Group enters UAE supermarket sector with Viva
The Landmark Group has taken its first step into supermarket-type retailing in the UAE with the launch of four “food discounter” stores under the “Viva” brand. But unlike mainstream super/hypermarket chains, Viva will only focus on food retailing — freshly prepared and packaged — and at steep discounts to prices elsewhere.Source: gulfnews.com
Carrefour Brasil beats quarterly profit estimates
Brazilian food retailer Carrefour Brasil’s beat profit estimates for the fourth quarter, as its Atacadão wholesale supermarkets lead growth with rising sales and widening margins. In a securities filing, the unit of France’s Carrefour SA reported fourth-quarter net income of 596mln reais ($183.32mln), up 11.1% from a year ago and above a Reuters consensus estimate of 498mln reais.Source: reuters.com
Walmart China appoints Wern-Yuen Tan as CEO
Walmart has appointed Wern-Yuen Tan as President and CEO of its operations in China. Tan joined Walmart in April 2017 to lead Chinese hypermarket operations. He takes over from Dirk van den Berghe, regional president of Walmart Asia, and is the fourth president and CEO in seven years.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
US: Startup launches scalable Amazon Go-like system for retailers
AiFi, a startup technology company, has launched a scalable, checkout-free system similar to Amazon Go for retailers. In an interview with Food Dive, co-founder and CEO Steve Gu said the technology is able to be installed in small stores as well as large conventional grocery stores and even supercenters. AiFi will unveil its technology at a 50,000-square foot store belonging to a major grocery retailer, which Gu declined to name. The company could potentially expand to other locations with this retailer in the future. Like Amazon Go, AiFi’s system relies on computer vision and artificial intelligence to track shoppers in stores and then process their orders. Source: fooddive.com