Carrefour opens three new 'Express' outlets in Belgium
Carrefour Belgium has announced that it has launched three new convenience stores in Boechout, Boom, and Scherpenheuvel. The move is a part of the retail giant's plan to add 30 new stores to its network this year. The new stores have been designed to offer customers a smooth and easy shopping experience. These products in the stores have been carefully selected to emphasise on the group's Act For Food programme, which aims to take concrete steps to encourage customers to eat better. The outlets offer healthy and ready-to-use meal solutions that suit customers' expectations. The product offering includes prepared meals, snacks, fruits, meat, poultry, fish, and fresh, organic vegetables.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Italy: Coop announces new management structure
The Annual General Assembly of Coop Italia has approved the retailer’s 2018 results and renewed its governance structure. Marco Pedroni has been confirmed as president of the retailer cooperative, supported by Antonio Bomarsi as vice president. Maura Latini, the former general manager of the business, takes on the role of managing director. Total sales at Coop Italia amounted to €14.8bln in 2018, of which €13.4bln was related to retail activities. The retailer posted a profit of €1.08bln. It managed to achieve savings of over €215mln for its member cooperatives as a result of negotiations with suppliers, which in turn made it possible to stabilise or cut prices for end consumers, it said.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Only 18% of goods sold in top supermarkets are Made in Ghana - Research
Goods manufactured locally are struggling to make it to the shelves of leading supermarkets in Accra, research conducted by Konfidants, an international business advisory firm, has shown. The research, which surveyed eight of the leading supermarkets in Accra on 23 product categories, showed that only 18% of all the goods sold by these supermarket chains were Made in Ghana. The survey was conducted between April and May 2019 at Shoprite, Game all at Accra Mall, Palace Supermarket (Palace Mall), Koala (Osu), Maxmart (37), CityDia (La), Melcom (North Kaneshie) and Marina Mall Supermarket (Airport). In all, a total number of 7,462 brands were counted across all the eight supermarkets included in the survey. Out of this number, 6,108 representing 82% were foreign brands, with only 1,354, that is: 18% is made in Ghana brands.
Source: ghanaweb.com
Coop launches reCIRCLE reusable boxes in Switzerland
Coop Switzerland has announced that it has rolled out reusable boxes offered by reCIRCLE in all its 182 Coop restaurants and Coop Take It in the country. The move will help in reducing the use of disposable containers in takeaway services. In March of this year, the retail giant launched a pilot project to test the concept in Basel. Head of Coop Gastronomy, Kaspar Wittwer, said: “It [The pilot project] was so well received by our guests that an introduction throughout Switzerland was the only logical step. We are pleased to present this offer to all our customers throughout Switzerland, thereby making a further contribution to minimising littering and active reduction of plastic waste”, he added.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Alibaba wants to open more physical stores
By 2030, Alibaba wants to use its subsidiary Hema Fresh to open physical stores in all 200 Chinese cities with over a million inhabitants. Alibaba has big plans for its innovative supermarket chain, which was launched in 2017 and currently has 150 outlets in the nation's 21 biggest cities. Within three years, the chain is expected to raise that amount to 2000 outlets. The chain's supermarkets don't use registers and allow customers to use a specific app which is connected to their Alipay account. They scan the codes on the products and payment is done automatically. Hema Fresh is not just a store but also a functioning warehouse: customers can simply order online and have their groceries delivered at home. The chain's success is mostly due to the enormous range of fresh products and the possibility to consume fresh meals on the spot. There are smaller stands located here and there throughout the store, where customers can have all kinds of food prepared for them. In that sense, Hema Fresh isn't just a (digital) supermarket, but it also functions as an actual restaurant.
Source: retaildetail.eu
Norway: Extra opens 24-hour, self-service store
Coop Norge-owned Extra has opened a 24-hour, self-service grocery store in Bogstadveien, Oslo. The store operates as a self-service store after 23:00, enabling shoppers to verify their identity using the CoopKey app and BankID and checkout using the self-service counter. To ensure the safety of its customers, Extra has installed cutting-edge technology that can detect abnormal activities and alert authorities if necessary. There are also ‘help buttons’ for customers to use themselves. If the store is successful, Coop Norge will consider rolling out the format more widely. Commenting on the new store, Christian Hoel, head of Extra, said: “Coop has always been at the forefront of the use of technology in the grocery industry, therefore it is natural for us to test this concept now… We do this so that our customers can act quickly and efficiently when it suits them. Many work shifts, and these will now have the opportunity to shop on their way home”.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
India: Grofers targets to convert 200 brick-and-mortar stores into its branded outlets
Online grocery platform Grofers is working on converting about 200 brick-and-mortar stores into its own branded outlets over the next few months as it looks to expand its business and push its private label of products. The SoftBank-backed company has been working on the business model for the past few months and has already converted about 100 such 'kirana' outlets. "We have converted several grocery stores into our own branded offline stores, around 100 kirana stores in Delhi-NCR have been a part of this effort that started somewhere in November last year. Our target is to have 200 such stores in the coming few months", Grofers Vice-President and Head (Offline Business) Yeshu Bansal told PTI.
Source: livemint.com
Brazil: GPA taps Microsoft to test 'Amazon Go'-like technologies
Brazilian food retailer GPA SA plans to open its first store to test technologies such as facial recognition and “scan & go” shopping by year-end, following in the footsteps of parent company Casino, which opened a checkout-free store in Paris last November. The Sao Paulo-based store, which will use technology from Microsoft Corp, makes GPA the latest supermarket chain to experiment with formats similar to Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Go checkout-free convenience stores the Web-based retailer has rolled out in the United States.
Source: reuters.com
Chile: Cencosud Shopping launches largest-ever IPO on Santiago exchange
Chilean retailer Cencosud launched an initial public offering for its shopping center division, the largest ever on Santiago’s blue-chip stock exchange, netting the company $1.055bln, the exchange said. Cencosud Shopping offered as many as 474mln shares on the exchange, or approximately 28% of the division. The price was set at 1,521 pesos ($2.24) per share.
Source: reuters.com
US: Aldi teams with Parx Plastics on meat and poultry food safety
Aldi’s U.S. stores have implemented, in their meat and poultry departments, shelf liners produced with the aid of technology from Parx Plastics N.V. According to Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Parx, its technology has already been thoroughly tested in the drainage systems of freezers and refrigerators in U.K. supermarkets, where it provided a sustainable anti-clogging solution, preventing the buildup in supermarket display cases of a bacteria called pseudomonas, thereby saving supermarket chains the expense and disruption associated with blocked drains.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Kroger outlines plans for flagship food hall concept
As part of its plans to develop a flagship store in Cincinnati, Kroger’s new concept will feature a food hall incorporating its own, and external foodservice brands. The 45,000 sq ft store is scheduled to open in September and will be more than twice the size of its existing store in the downtown area. The central element of the store, which will form part of a mixed-use development, is a new food hall. This will feature a range of operators on the second floor, including Kroger’s own standalone restaurant concept, Kitchen 1883 Café and Bar. External partners will include Eli's Barbecue, Dope Asian Street Fare, Django Western Taco and Queen City Whip. The store will also feature a Starbucks and Murray’s Cheese counter.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
