UK: Waitrose & Partners expands in-home delivery service
Waitrose & Partners is extending its in-home unattended delivery service, While You’re Away, following a successful initial trial. In October 2018, Waitrose became the first UK retailer to deliver groceries through in-home unattended delivery. The retailer’s While You’re Away service was initially trialled with 100 customers located within the delivery area of its dotcom fulfilment centre in Coulsdon, South London. Due to positive customer feedback, Waitrose is extending the current trial to 1,000 customers. The shopper can grant access to the delivery driver using Yale smart lock technology, by setting a temporary access code for the lock, which is then sent to Waitrose via a secure app. The driver receives this code at the time the customer has booked the delivery and is deleted once complete.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
FamilyMart sues to end Chinese joint venture with Ting Hsin: Nikkei
Japanese convenience store operator FamilyMart is looking to end a 15-year joint venture with Taiwan’s Ting Hsin International Group, the Nikkei Asian Review reported, citing sources close to the matter. FamilyMart's parent, FamilyMart Uny Holdings, is pursuing legal action against the Ting Hsin food conglomerate to end the partnership over contractual disputes, the Nikkei reported. The Japanese business alleged that Ting Hsin ceased disclosing pertinent transaction data around 2012, and that for several months had withheld fee payments for using the FamilyMart brand, Nikkei reported.
Source: reuters.com
Italy: Coop launches campaign for pesticide-free fruit and vegetables
Coop Italia has launched a campaign to eliminate pesticides from Coop-branded fruit and vegetables. The retailer aims to gradually remove four types of herbicides, including glyphosate, from its own brand fruit and vegetables. The fresh produce departments of the 1,100 Coop stores will offer fruits completely free of these pesticides by the end of May, the retailer said. Cherries will be the first of the 35 Coop-branded fruit and vegetables to eliminate pesticides. Presently, the retailer sources cherries from 116 suppliers and more than 7,000 farms. In 2019, a total of 15 crops will be made pesticide-free, including melons, grapes, and clementines.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Spanish retailer DIA strikes rescue deal with banks
Struggling Spanish retailer DIA reached an eleventh-hour agreement to secure financing, new owner LetterOne said in a statement, staving off the imminent risk of having to start insolvency proceedings. DIA’s failure to compete with domestic and foreign rivals that have invested more heavily in their stores has hit the company’s market share and left it with negative equity and towering debt. The group’s principal creditor, Santander, reached a deal with DIA’s new owner, Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne (L1) fund, with hours to go before a midnight deadline, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Source: reuters.com
UK: Ocado says 400 jobs are at risk after fire at distribution centre
Up to 400 jobs are at risk at Ocado after the online grocer admitted it would take two years to rebuild a hi-tech distribution centre destroyed by a fire in February. The company, which currently delivers groceries for Morrisons as well as for Ocado’s online store, is consulting with picking and packing staff about potential redundancies having been unable to find suitable temporary warehouse space in Andover, Hampshire. Workers have been retained on full pay since February when a major blaze razed the firm’s £45mln robot-driven distribution centre.
Source: theguardian.com
Sofia court cancels 7.6mln euro fine on Metro Cash&Carry Bulgaria
A Sofia court said it has canceled a 14.9mln levs ($8.57mln/7.6mln euro) fine imposed by the country's anti-trust body on retailer Metro Cash&Carry Bulgaria for illegal comparative advertising. Metro Cash&Carry's advertising campaign cannot be defined as comparative advertising, it does not discredit and tarnish the reputation of local competitor Lidl Bulgaria, nor does it benefit from Lidl's popularity and practice to hold "theme weeks", the Sofia administrative court stated in its ruling. The ruling can be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court within two weeks.
Source: seenews.com
Alibaba faces EU consumer complaints over contract terms
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd faces complaints from six European consumer organisations into allegedly unfair user terms for its online retail service, arguing some of the clauses violate European Union law. Consumer groups, including from France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, filed complaints with national regulators to probe “unclear” and “problematic contract terms and practices” for AliExpress users in the EU. The “most serious problem” for the consumer groups are the terms for dispute settlements between sellers and consumers. BEUC, which represents the national consumer groups, said Alibaba is violating EU laws by imposing terms on users that would force them to go to a Hong Kong arbitration court in case disputes can’t be settled amicably. Consumers should have the right to bring cases in their own country, the group said. “If Alibaba targets consumers in the EU market, it has no choice but to respect EU consumer rules. If it does not, it’s up to national authorities to step in,” Monique Goyens, director general of BEUC, said in a statement.
Source: gulfnews.com
UK: Co-op given green light for new southern distribution centre
Supermarket Co-op is set to open a new regional distribution centre (DC) in 2022 after gaining planning consent for the site. Situated just off the A1 at Symmetry Park, Biggleswade, the 661,000 sq ft facility is expected to create up to 1,200 jobs, and Co-op has secured a 20-year lease for the location. The site represents the first pre-let development from the db Symmetry strategic land portfolio acquired by Tritax Big Box REIT in February 2019. Contracts were originally exchanged between db Symmetry and the retailer in November 2018, conditional on full planning consent.
Source: essentialretail.com
US: Publix doubles spending on Lakeland HQ expansion to $65mln
It appears the Florida-based retailer finally disclosed that it indeed has plans of transforming its headquarters. The retailer’s HQ is transforming from Dr. Banner to full-on Hulk, so to speak. According to News Chief, records show that the company has increased its HQ spending from $28mln to $65mln to cover the costs of a 190,000-square-foot expansion. “The increase in costs are due to approximately 30,000 square feet of necessary building space to accommodate our projected job growth, construction and equipment cost inflation, and finished interior costs”, Chris Mesa, Director of Tax and Treasury for the retailer, said, as the news source reported. “[…] this project is in the final stages of planning and design.”
Source: delimarketnews.com
US: ShopRite workers in Philadelphia-area OK contract
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1776KS members at Philadelphia-area ShopRite Supermarkets have voted to ratify a new union contract for more than 2,500 employees of the Wakefern Food Corp. banner. Associates from six southeastern Pennsylvania ShopRite employers - Ammons Supermarkets, Brown's Super Stores, Collins Family Market, Colligas Family Market, R & R ShopRite, and GMS Zallie Holdings - attended two union meetings on May 16 to hear details of the contract and vote on the tentative five-year agreement, which covers such issues as wage increases and benefit protections, the expansion of non-discrimination language, scheduling notification and additional shop stewards.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Walmart plans new 300-acre headquarters to attract top talent
Walmart revealed details for an expansive new headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas - referred to as the home office - as the retailer seeks to attract top talent in a technology-driven world. For the first time, Walmart is sharing renderings that it says have a "very different look and feel" from its present home on the corner of S.W. 8th Street and Walton Boulevard. The sprawling campus will sit on more than 300 acres, and is expected to feature an array of amenities for employees.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
US: German grocer Lidl plans to open first Philadelphia store in Port Richmond within a year
German grocer Lidl plans to open a store in Port Richmond, its first Philadelphia location, by next spring. The store on Butler Street near Aramingo Avenue is among 25 locations spanning from South Carolina to New York that Lidl plans to open by spring of 2020, it said in a release. The release made no mention of the proposals for locations in South and Northeast Philadelphia that have surfaced in the past. Lidl spokesperson Will Harwood said in an email that it is too early “to offer specifics on the other sites that are under consideration."
Source: philly.com
US: Giant to acquire Ferguson & Hassler store
Giant Food Stores has entered into an agreement with Ferguson & Hassler to acquire its Quarryville, Pennsylvania, store, which will reopen under the Giant brand following a quick refurbishing. Family-owned Ferguson & Hassler has operated for more than 100 years in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The 65,000-square-foot Quarryville location, known as Fergie’s, was its only store and had operated since 1988. The store is scheduled to close June 19 and will reopen approximately a week later as Giant following a remodel and the installation of an on-site fuel station. The acquisition marks Giant’s second buyout of a Lancaster County independent in the past year. In September, the Ahold Delhaize unit purchased Darrenkamp’s Willow Valley store in Lancaster. Darrenkamp’s three other units closed.
Source: winsightgrocerybusiness.com