US: Food retailer Smart & Final explores sale - sources
Smart & Final Stores Inc, a U.S. food retailer controlled by private equity firm Ares Management Corp, is exploring options that include a sale of the company, according to people familiar with the matter. An outright sale would allow Ares to cash out on its majority stake in Smart & Final. It acquired the company in 2012 from fellow buyout firm Apollo Global Management LLC for $975mln, including debt. Ares took Smart & Final public in 2014 at a price of $12 per share. The shares have lost close to half their value since then, as the company has struggled in a tough environment for brick-and-mortar retailers. Smart & Final, based in Commerce, California, is working with investment banks on a sale process, and has reached out to private equity firms that could be potential acquirers, the sources said. There is no certainty Smart & Final will ultimately agree on a sale, the sources cautioned, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deliberations. Ares declined to comment. A representative for Smart & Final said the company is focused on executing its strategic plan and that its longstanding policy is not to comment on market rumors or speculation.
Source: reuters.com
US: Kroger awarding grants to food waste innovators
The Kroger Co. has revealed the details of the up to $1mln in funding it will award to companies that can help advance its Zero Hunger, Zero Waste campaign goals, which aims to eliminate food waste and hunger in its communities by 2025. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen first mentioned the initiative at the National Retail Federation show last month, and is now calling for innovators to submit letters of intent before early March. Jessica Adelman, Kroger's group VP of corporate affairs, said the retailer is seeking to "partner with creative thinkers and innovators who share our vision for a better world."
Source: winsightgrocerybusiness.com
US online grocery spend peaks at 3%
Although retailers such as Kroger, Walmart and Amazon are working on grocery delivery solutions, only 3% of today’s grocery spend in the U.S. occurs through eCommerce. In South Korea and the U.K., by comparison, the penetration of eCommerce in grocery shopping has reached 15% CNBC reported. Through a collaboration with Google, Bain & Co. found that just one-quarter of U.S. shoppers tested an eCommerce grocery offering in the past year. And just 6% of those consumers noted that they place eCommerce grocery orders more often than once a month. Bain & Co. partner Stephen Caine said: “we’ve been early adopters in this country in almost every other retail category … we know online grocery will explode at some point.”
Source: pymnts.com
US: Performance Food Group names new President & CEO of Foodservice
Performance Food Group Company (PFG) is elevating company veteran Craig Hoskins to the role of President & CEO for the company’s Foodservice segment and Executive Vice President of the company. He will report to George Holm, PFG’s Chairman, President & CEO in his new position. Hoskins has been with PFG since 2008, according to a press release, and joined when the company merged with Vistar Corporation, where he was involved with sales, marketing, operations, and merchandising. Hoskins became President & CEO of PFG Customized Distribution and a Senior Vice President of PFG in January 2012 and assumed additional responsibility for Performance Foodservice’s sales and marketing in January 2018. Since August 2018, Hoskins also held an interim position as President & CEO of Performance Foodservice which he will now take over permanently.
Source: delimarketnews.com
Despar opens two Eurospar stores in Italy
Despar has opened two new Eurospar supermarkets in Bologna and Trieste. Aspiag Service, the Despar concessionaire for the Emilia Romagna and Triveneto region, now has 235 directly managed stores, of which 81 trade under the Despar banner, 117 Eurospar and 37 Eurospar. The Trieste store has a sales area of 1,240 square meters, while the Bologna supermarket (the third located in the city) is smaller with 1,200 square meters. Both have approximately 20,000 SKUs, mainly food products. Like all new Despar Aspiag Service stores, the stores feature a green component, due to the adoption of low environmental impact systems. The buildings are energy class A3. The heat produced by the refrigerated counters is entirely recovered, while the refrigeration systems in the store are powered by CO2, which is more environmentally friendly. Lighting, as in all the new and refurbished stores, is powered by high-efficiency LED, both inside and outside the stores. Additionally, all interior furnishings are FSC-certified wood, i.e. originating from sustainably managed forests.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Hungary: Tesco employees on strike, 17,000 workers may not receive salary
Nearly 17,500 Tesco employees will not receive their January salary as, on Tuesday, the payroll specialists of the Győr office facing closure announced a strike which could paralyze the internal operation of the supermarket chain, Magyar Nemzet reports. Tesco Global Áruházak Zrt. and the employees of the Győr office were unable to arrive at a compromise concerning the downsizing of the payroll and accounting department. Those affected started Tuesday’s workday with a two-hour warning strike beginning at eight o’clock and suspended their duties until an agreement can be reached with the supermarket chain. Due to the strike, Tesco employees may not receive their January salaries and social security benefits - among other things - as the work done by the payroll specialists in Győr is essential to the process. Additionally, Tesco will not be able to report new employees or tax returns to the tax office in a timely fashion. The head of the strike committee told Magyar Nemzet that the company will be unable to provide leaving documents for former employees, despite the law only permitting a five-day window to accomplish this.
Source: hungarytoday.hu
France: Carrefour to restructure its hypermarkets
Carrefour will restructure its French hypermarkets. The giant retailer presented its action plan for its French hypermarkets in 2019, which includes new lease-management and deletions, causing concern from the unions. The French distributor must imperatively raise the bar of these very large formats which account for nearly 25% of its turnover and whose counter-performances lead to profitability. As part of its stimulus package presented a year ago, group CEO Alexandre Bompard had already announced cuts in surface area - non-food departments suffering from competition from specialized retailers and e-commerce - a better food basket with more organic products and franchises for the most deficit stores.
Source: internationalsupermarketnews.com
Ireland's Centra: record sales and new store plans
Convenience retailer Centra has announced sales of €1.63bln in 2018, an increase of 3.6% year-on-year. Centra also plans to open 25 new stores this year. Centra, Ireland’s leading convenience retailer, plans to build on its strong sales results by opening 25 new stores throughout 2019, in addition to revamping a further 80 stores. The new stores and refurbishments are part of a €35mln investment through which Centra will roll out the latest thinking in the convenience market, and meet new consumer trends, providing customers with a seamless shopping experience.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Ecommerce France was worth €92.6bln in 2018
Even though the “Yellow Vest” protests in the last two months of 2018 took their toll, ecommerce in France has managed to increase by 13.4% last year. The online retail industry of France was worth 92.6bln euros at the end of last year. These figures were shared by French ecommerce association Fevad. It based its study on information from online retailers and the aggregate amount of transactions carried out by the biggest payment service providers in the country.
Source: ecommercenews.eu
UK shoppers look to healthier options: Nielsen
UK shoppers upped their spend on healthy products in January, while also seeking to save money where possible, according to industry data from Nielsen for the four week period to 26 January. Grocery sales increased by 3.3% in the period, with volume growth in fresh produce rising by 1.5% in the period. Shoppers spent over £900mln on fresh fruit and vegetables, Nielsen said, over £27mln more than this time last year. With healthier eating on the minds of many shoppers, sales of broccoli increased (+15%), as did beetroot (+14%), Brazil nuts (+13%) and blueberries (+10%).
Source: esmmagazine.com
Spain: Mercadona will withdraw plastic bags from its stores in Catalonia this month
The supermarket chain Mercadona has announced that this February it will definitively replace the plastic bags of its 259 supermarkets in Catalonia with paper bags, raffia bags, and other reusable and recyclable bags. In a statement, the company has specified that this measure will also be implemented this month definitively in the communities of Madrid and Navarra. Subsequently, the process will be extended to reach more than 1,600 stores that Mercadona has in Spain. A procedure that will culminate in the middle of next April.
Source: internationalsupermarketnews.com
Germany: Aldi challenger has to close shop after five days
Russian discounter Mere has had to close its first German store after just five days. Not due to a lack of customers, rather the contrary: suppliers could not handle the storming demand and the supermarket's shelves became empty. The store in East-German Leipzig saw a stampede of eager customers, the German media reported. This week the doors remained closed: “Due to the extremely high demand our store remains closed. We have acted fast, but had to acknowledge our suppliers need more time for their deliveries”, a notification near the entrance said.
Source: retaildetail.eu
UK: Fire badly damages online pioneer Ocado's robotic site
A fire at the flagship robotic distribution centre of British online supermarket pioneer Ocado is now under control but has badly damaged the complex, the fire service said. Around 20 fire engines and 200 firefighters were called to the highly automated site in Andover, southern England, to tackle a blaze that raged for over 24 hours, prompting part of the roof to collapse. The Andover plant, which can process 65,000 orders a week, is Ocado’s third automated warehouse and has been instrumental in the firm winning four major deals to sell its technology to international retailers such as U.S. group Kroger Co and France’s Casino.
Source: reuters.com