US: New Seasons Market appoints CEO
Forrest Hoffmaster has been named chief executive officer at New Seasons Market under a new leadership structure. With the move, New Seasons’ top management shifts from dual-president setup. Hoffmaster had served as co-president along with Kristi McFarland, who now becomes chief strategy officer. New Seasons tabbed Hoffmaster and McFarland as co-presidents in January 2018 with the exit of CEO Wendy Collie, who stepped down after serving in the role since December 2012. “We’ve had a successful year coming together around our mission”, Hoffmaster said in a statement. “We have passionate and dedicated staff and an incredible, purpose-driven leadership team committed to the long-term health of our organization, staying true to our founder-inspired values and being a leader in the industry. Our team is structured to bring these priorities to life.”
Source: supermarketnews.com
US: Earth Fare aims to double footprint in 5 years
On the occasion of the opening of Earth Fare's 50th store, in the Steele Creek neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, the company's CEO, Frank Scorpiniti, told a local newspaper that the natural food grocer plans to open another 50 locations across the country in the next five years. This growth includes another “five or so” supermarkets in the Charlotte area, despite stiff competition in the region from the likes of Sprouts Farmers Market (No. 22 on Progressive Grocer's 2018 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States); Whole Foods Market (No . 9 on the list, under its parent company, Amazon); Harris Teeter (No. 2, under its parent company, The Kroger Co.); and Publix Super Markets (No. 5), the last two of which are continuing to grow their natural/organic offerings.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
Amazon debuts its adorable delivery robot called Scout
Amazon is launching a new self-driving delivery device called Scout, and it’s adorable. Scout is the size of a “small cooler” and can roll along sidewalks, delivering packages safely to a customer’s doorstep. The device is currently operating in Snohomish County, Washington, the company announced. It’s the latest development in Amazon’s growing logistics business and the cutest last-mile solution yet. “The devices will autonomously follow their delivery route but will initially be accompanied by an Amazon employee”, Amazon said in a statement. “We developed Amazon Scout at our research and development lab in Seattle, ensuring the devices can safely and efficiently navigate around pets, pedestrians and anything else in their path.”
Source: cnbc.com
UK’s largest independent Co-operative set to expand its food stores in the Cotswolds
The Midcounties Co-operative, the UK’s largest independent Co-operative, has agreed a deal to purchase 4 of the Cotswolds-based Warner’s Budgens food stores, a deal that will complete this summer. Midcounties Co-operative has supermarkets and convenience stores across a number of counties and prides itself on supporting local producers and suppliers. Its store in Bourton-on-the-Water was selected last year by the Institute of Grocery Distribution as one of the top stores of its type in Europe thanks to its local sourcing programme. The acquisition of the Warner’s Budgens stores will strengthen its presence in the Cotswolds and give greater access for its members to high quality food stores. The four Warner’s Budgens stores are in Bidford-on-Avon, Broadway, Moreton-in-Marsh and Winchcombe and are currently owned and operated by independent retailer Guy Warner who, under the terms of the deal, will retain freehold ownership of the four properties.
Source: midcounties.coop
Aldi rolls out rooftop solar in Australia
Supermarket chain Aldi is to install 4.6 MW of solar PV on 30 of its stores plus a distribution centre in Australia. The properties in New South Wales and Queensland will be equipped by Photon Energy Engineering Australia, a subsidiary of Dutch solar company Photon Energy. “Photon Energy is very proud to be co-operating with Aldi to transform its stores into solar power generators capable of providing a large proportion of their daytime electricity consumption”, said Photon Energy’s managing director Michael Gartner. Combined, the 31 installations are designed to generate more than 6.3 GWh of clean energy every year. Photon will also provide monitoring and operation and maintenance services.
Source: powerengineeringint.com
Ireland: Lidl announces roll out of Buymie home delivery service in Dublin
Lidl will begin rolling out online grocery shopping in Dublin after trialling it in partnership with the home-delivery app, Buymie. The partnership means that Lidl will now be able to provide a personalised grocery service in as little as one hour, with options for two- and three-hour delivery windows. Through the Buymie app, customers can also pre-order a delivery one week in advance. This will be the first time Lidl will facilitate online grocery delivery in Ireland.
Source: checkout.ie
UK: Ocado deploys Citrus ad platform
Ocado has gone live with a new digital advertising platform from Australian startup Citrus. The aim is to monetise shelf space for the online retailer. It has been testing campaigns with the platform using own label products and reports good returns. And it is now inviting suppliers to get on board. Ocado, Head of Grocery Merchandising and Product, Alice Mannion, says: “We aim to be the best place to launch new brands and are dedicated to helping our smaller suppliers grow. Citrus ticks all the boxes for us, it’s scalable, secure, easy to integrate and crucially delivers better optimised exposure for our smaller to medium sized brands.”
Source: retailtechinnovationhub.com
Portugal: Sonae MC to invest €110mln to reduce ecological footprint
Portuguese retailer Sonae MC plans to invest €110mln by 2022 to reduce the ecological footprint of its Continente hypermarkets and supermarkets. Around €55mln will be loaned by the European Investment Bank (EIB) under the European Fund for Strategic Investments. The financing contract will be formally signed in the coming weeks, as Sonae MC's energy and environmental sustainability project received the green light from the EIB at the end of 2018. A Sonae MC source told the Expresso newspaper that the company "has an active investment policy in reducing the ecological footprint, energy efficiency and reducing the waste of its food retail brands”, pointing out that the environmental sustainability strategy aims to position the firm as a benchmark setter in the sector.
Source: esmmagazine.com
China: Alibaba helps the blind shop online
E-commerce giant Alibaba has developed new technology to make it possible for blind and partially sighted people to shop online, according to an article on Alibaba’s news site Alizila. Alibaba plans to launch Smart Touch, an affordable silicone sheet that goes on top of smartphone screens, later this year. The plastic film includes three mini buttons on each side that sensory-enabled. Pressing on each one will trigger a different command, such as “go back”, “return to homepage” and “confirm”. Depending on the app, the buttons can lead to different destinations, such as “My Shopping Cart”, “Tmall Global”, and “Tmall Supermarket” in the Taobao app. Smart Touch is a joint effort of Alibaba’s Damo Academy and China’s Tsinghua University to improve the smartphone experience for the blind.
Source: insideretail.asia
UK: CMA ruling on Sainsbury's-Asda merger now due at end of April
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will now announce the findings of its investigation into the proposed Sainsbury's-Asda merger on 30 April, close to two months on from the previously planned publication date of 5 March. The Competition Appeal Tribunal announced the extended deadline, after Sainsbury's and Asda brought a case against the CMA over the time offered to respond to evidence. The issues regarding the deadline were also exacerbated by the fact that time periods involved spanned Christmas and New Year. Announcing its judgement, the Tribunal said that the 'case highlights the difficulties, as much for the CMA as for the parties, created by the statutory deadlines in the case of a particularly large and complex merger. The public interest does not benefit if the period in which the inquiry has to be completed is unreasonably compressed.'
Source: esmmagazine.com
Icelandic supermarket offers in-store packaging recycling
A local supermarket chain has begun a novel approach to reducing waste generated by their own products: in-store recycling. As RÚV reports, the plan is simple enough: after buying your products at the supermarket Krónan, you can unpack your goods right in the store, and then discard the packaging in a bin. From there, the packaging is sorted and sent off for recycling. As a tremendous amount of household waste is comprised of such packaging, the hope is that this measure will help reduce waste and increase the recycling of discarded materials. “Waste is not just our issue”, Krónan managing director Gréta María Grétarsdóttir told reporters. “It’s not just something we at Krónan need to address, but rather all of us.” She also says that Krónan have been in talks with suppliers, in the hopes of reducing packaging waste at the source. “Hopefully in the future, we can do much better than today”, she says. “But hopefully this is a step in the right direction.”
Source: grapevine.is
Amazon Germany offers free delivery in the Nordics
Amazon is offering customers in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, as well as the Czech Republic, free delivery from Amazon.de. Amazon customers from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden and Finland can now receive free standard delivery on qualifying orders over €39 when purchasing from the Amazon Germany website. Shoppers with qualifying orders will automatically be offered free standard delivery at the checkout stage, and “FREE Delivery” is marked on all eligible products. Customers can receive free delivery on items that are shipped directly from amazon.de and from third-party sellers who dispatch their products from Amazon Fulfilment Centres. Third-party sellers on Marketplace set their own shipping rates and are not fulfilled by amazon.de, therefore delivery fees will apply.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
UK: John Lewis Partnership posts 2% weekly sales growth
John Lewis Partnership’s positive start to the new year has continued, although the overall weekly sales growth was a slight slowdown on the previous week. For the week ending January 19, the parent company of the eponymous department store and Waitrose recorded a weekly sales uptick of 2% year-on-year, from £201.35 to £205.33mln. However, this is a slight dip against the 2.5% year-on-year growth that the partnership recorded in the week prior. Meanwhile, for the 51 weeks of the financial year so far, total partnership sales remained broadly at 0.1% year-on-year growth.
Source: retailgazette.co.uk