In preparation for Tropical Storm Linfa, local hypermarkets are preparing three times their regular amounts of fruit and vegetables to keep up with public needs, retailers said yesterday, chinapost.com.tw reports. Pxmart said the market price of vegetables has gone up and so they have to raise their prices. As there have been few typhoons for over a year, the price of local fruit has been relatively stable. The Central Weather Bureau estimates that many typhoons could hit Taiwan this year, which would greatly affect fruit and vegetable prices, dealers said. Carrefour representative Lin Meng-shao said that although vegetable prices have already risen, the company has ample stock because of earlier preparation. Carrefour prepared three times the usual quantity of fruit and vegetables, said Lin.AU: IGA launches price-match guarantee with major supermarkets
Gladstone independent supermarket retailers are price-matching their products to Australia's major supermarket chains in a bid to make shopping locally more appealing, gladstoneobserver.com.au reports. The Price Match Promise has been launched in IGA stores across the state, including branches in Agnes Water, Biloela, Calliope and Sun Valley. IGA retailer state board chairman Tyrone Jones said Price Match allows Gladstone region customers to shop locally without having to pay more.Japan's Aeon interested in buying Tesco's Malaysia unit
Japan's Aeon Co Ltd is interested in buying the Malaysian operations of Britain's Tesco PLC, valued at about $1.4bn, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Japan's largest retailer has been venturing into Southeast Asia where purchasing power is rising in fast-growing economies. In contrast, growth has been hampered at home by deflation, sluggish consumer spending and a shrinking population. Buying Tesco's operations would make Aeon Malaysia's biggest hypermarkets group, Reuters reports. Carrefour Polska at Fresh Market Conference
Buyers of fresh fruits and vegetables from Carrefour retail chain confirmed their participation in Fresh Market 2015, freshmarket.eu reports. The participants of the Fresh Market Conference will have an opportunity to present their offer. Carrefour Polska is owned 100% by the Carrefour Group, a French hypermarket and supermarket chain. UK: Plum deals at the Co-op bear fruit with double-digit growth
Plum deals at The Co-operative have led to a near double-digit growth across its fresh produce range following a multi-million pound investment to trim the price of fruit and vegetables, co-operative.coop reports. The investment by the community retailer, which has a store in every postal area, saw prices pruned across its range of fresh fruit and vegetables. Launched in mid-June, its revolving offers on popular produce, known as “fresh three”, has seen growth of more than 130% over the three-week period. With a near double digit growth in volumes (9.4%) across its wider fresh produce range.AU: Coles closes gap on Woolworths at the delicatessen
Rival Coles has halved its losing margin during that period, going from 31.5% of the market to 36.7% in the most recent survey of 7277 Australians, smh.com.au reports. Coles continues to close the gap on rival Woolworths, this time taking a bigger slice of the delicatessen market, new retail research shows. The Roy Morgan data shows around half of all grocery buyers pick up produce from a deli during their shop, spending a total of around $91m in an average week. Woolworths continues to hold the largest share of this $4.7bn market, claiming 43% of all deli purchases, down slightly from 44.1% in 2011.US: A&P partners with 30 local farms
A&P announced Tuesday that 30 local farms would provide seasonal produce to its A&P, Food Basics, Pathmark, Superfresh, The Food Emporium and Waldbaum’s banners, supermarketnews.com reports. Farms in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania will supply fruit such as blueberries, apples and peaches as well as 35 types of vegetables. “Farmers work extremely hard year round to provide their products to the community,” Eric Kanterman, chief merchandising officer of Montvale, N.J.-based A&P, said in a press release. “We are thrilled to offer our customers seasonal produce fresh from the farm in their neighborhood.”UK: Nisa reports soaring sales for ‘Heritage’ range
Nisa has announced that its ‘Heritage’ own label range is performing “above and beyond expectations”, helped by a new look and being promoted more prominently, kamcity.com reports. The award-winning new look range, which will be fully complete after the transformation of the final 260 products, saw sales surge 112% y-o-y during the 7 - 21 June period. Heritage Strawberries saw a 75% uplift
US: Washington company grinds up grocery waste (Video)The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that supermarkets lose $15bn a year in unsold fruits and vegetables, kpbs.org reports. For many people, that might sound like a huge problem. But Larry LeSueur and Jose Lugo saw an opportunity. The two former Microsoft executives have been working on a new way to deal with grocery store food waste turning it into a liquid fertilizer.
Digital grocery sales set to rise in Sweden
Digital sales of groceries in Sweden totalled SEK3.0bn ($437.2m) in 2014, representing an increase of 41% compared with the previous year, according to a May 2015 study by HUI Research for Svensk Digital Handel, emarketer.com reports. As such, the grocery industry was one of the fastest-growing sectors on the web in the country last year, and sales were expected to increase by another 40% in 2015. Nevertheless, a relatively small share (25%) of internet users in Sweden actually bought groceries on the internet during 2014. Young adults aged 18 to 25 were the most likely to be digital grocery buyers last year, at 42%, while those ages 65 to 70 were the least likely, at 11%. Retail sales in the EU continued to grow
In May, seasonally adjusted retail sales in both the Euro area and across the entire EU continued to grow. Compared with the previous month, they increased by 0.2% across the European Union and by 0.3% in the Euro countries, according to data published by the European statistical office Eurostat, blesk.cz reports. This increase in sales is mainly the result of a 0.4% growth in the food and beverage and non-food product categories, while the revenue from fuel sales dropped. In April, sales traders in the Euro area increased by 0.7% across the EU by 0.6%. In May 2015, the retail sales index in the Eurozone grew by 2.4%, compared with 2.7% in April. Across the EU, the index increased by 3%, after growing by 2.9% in the previous month.Interesting links about retail:
IRI launches ‘Convenience Market Place’ to drive growth opportunitiesPlease, click here to read the article.
Is Whole Foods growth plan facing a cash crunch?Please, click here to read the article.
