Asda festive vegetables on sale for 20p a pack

Lidl shows commitment to UK post-Brexit by announcing the creation of 5,000 jobs
BUDGET supermarket chain Lidl is to create 5,000 jobs in London and invest £70m in a new UK headquarters in the capital as it reaffirms its commitment to post-Brexit Britain. The German chain said the jobs are part of its plans to open nearly 250 new stores in London as it pushes ahead with a three-year UK investment plan worth £1.5bn.

Asda festive vegetables on sale for 20p a pack
Budget supermarket Asda has cut the cost of its festive vegetables to 20p a pack, just in time for Christmas. From today, shoppers at Asda can buy a 500g bag of sprouts, a 1kg pack of carrots, a 360g broccoli and a 500g bag of parsnips for 80p, with each item costing 20p.

UK Supermarket sales fall by £800m
According to a recent study report by analysts Nielsen for The Grocer magazine, Supermarkets in the UK have lost more than £800m in sales this year due to price wars and a fall in the value of the pound sterling. Many major brands including Carlsberg, Warburtons, Pampers, Princes canned fish and Heinz Classic soups suffered the most, fighting against private label counterparts. The major setback was experienced on the fresh meat side, as the grocers have responded to ultra-competitive prices at the discounters with lower prices and cheaper cuts.

Free wonky carrots for Rudolph at Morrisons
Morrisons Inverurie will be giving away wonky carrots in an effort to support the Christmas tradition of leaving out refreshments for Santa and his reindeers on Christmas Eve. The move aims to introduce kids to wonky veg, encourage families to buy large or misshapen carrots, and help out busy parents who might otherwise forget a gift for Father Christmas. It follows new research amongst parents which reveals that leaving food and drink out for Father Christmas and his reindeer is still a popular tradition for engaging kids with 6.2 million families taking part.

Waitrose launches mini edible Christmas trees
Romanesco Cauliflower Christmas Trees will launch in branches of Waitrose this week. The supermarket chain predicts these ‘edible Christmas trees’, which come with pomegranate seeds and a star anise for customers to recreate their very own mini edible Christmas tree, will be a big hit with shoppers ‘and may even persuade little ones to eat their greens’.

Mercator To See Lower Revenue in 2017
Slovenia’s Mercator Group is targeting €2.4 billion in revenue for 2017, less than the €2.6 billion of expected revenues in 2016. According to the retail chain, owned by Croatian food-to-retail consortium Agrokor, the decline in revenue will be a result of an increased focus on the core retail business.

Dunnes Stores & SuperValu Tied For Irish Top Spot
Dunnes Stores and SuperValu are now tied for the top spot in the Irish grocery market, with each commanding 22.5% of the market, Kantar Worldpanel figures revealed on Monday. David Berry, director at the research firm, commented: "Having reached the number one spot for the first time last month, Dunnes now shares that position with SuperValu – a real testament to just how competitive this marketplace is. Just 0.7 percentage points now separate the three largest retailers as we enter the all-important festive period."

Russian Retailer Lenta Extends St. Petersburg Presence
Russian retailer Lenta has opened its eleventh supermarket in St. Petersburg; its 13th opening in 2016. The retail group now operates a total of 184 stores in 77 cities across Russia, including 45 supermarkets in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The new store covers a total area of 2,138 square metres, and boasts 1,291 square metres of selling space. It features a range of 6,500 SKUs, including a broad product assortment specifically for local residents.

Romanian supermarket chain Profi wants to open 200 stores next year
Romanian supermarket chain Profi has reached a network of 500 stores in Romania, and plans to continue expansion by opening 200 new units next year. This means that the company will hire dozens of store managers in 2017. Daniel Cristea, general director of Profi Rom Food, doesn’t think that this will be a problem for the retailer, as Profi has a good system in place to train future managers, “with many examples of people who have advanced from modest positions to the position of store manager,” reports local Mediafax.

Auchan maintains investment in Russia
As it opened its 100th hypermarket in the country, Auchan has announced that it will continue to invest as it looks to continue to grow in the increasingly important market. Underlining both the faith it has in the market and the growing importance it is playing in its short-term growth outlook, Auchan Russia’s president, Jean-Pierre Germain, confirmed that the retailer expected to invest RUB22.0bn (US$354.5 m) in Russia in 2016, up from the RUB17.0bn (US$273.9 m) it said it planned to spend. In the medium term Auchan said it would invest between RUB30.0 bn and RUB20.0 bn (US$483.4 m and US$322.2 m) to open new stores and revamp existing ones.