Canada: Dollarama’s Q3 profit rises, employees to receive pay bonus 
Dollarama Inc. said it would pay a bonus to its employees for their work during the pandemic as it raised its dividend and reported its third-quarter profit rose compared with a year ago. The discount chain had come under fire earlier this year from employees and their supporters, who demanded that Dollarama enact greater health precautions in its warehouses and extend the pay raise it offered to employees at the start of the pandemic. Sales totalled $1.06bln, up from $947.6mln in the same quarter last year, as shoppers reduced the frequency of store visits, but bought more when they did visit the stores.
Source: canadiangrocer.com
Instacart releases first "New Year, New Cart" 2021 Grocery Trends Report forecasting the food trends & grocery shopping habits for the year ahead
Instacart, the leading online grocery platform in North America, released its first "New Year, New Cart" 2021 Grocery Trends Report forecasting the at-home food trends and grocery shopping habits for the year ahead. Combining an in-depth look at Instacart purchase data with a new Instacart survey of 2,050 U.S. adults conducted by The Harris Poll, Instacart's "New Year, New Cart" 2021 report reflects 5 key shifts in shopping behavior, buying preferences, and food attitudes after nearly a year of COVID-19 pandemic living and cultural shifts.
Source: prnewswire.com
India: Flipkart and PhonePe have room for other investors, Walmart CEO says
Walmart Inc’s Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart and digital payments business PhonePe have room for other investors and could raise money in several ways including stock market listings, the U.S. retail giant’s CEO said. Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer by sales, bought about 77% of home-grown Flipkart for roughly $16bln in 2018, the biggest deal in India’s e-commerce sector where it competes with U.S. rival Amazon.com Inc’s local business.
Source: reuters.com
Maxima Latvija SIA names Tomas Rupšys as new CEO
Maxima Grupė has announced the appointment of Tomas Rupšys as the new chief executive officer of Maxima Latvija SIA. He has also joined the management board of Maxima Grupė UAB, the company added. CEO and chairman of the board of Maxima Grupė, Mantas Kuncaitis, said: “I am happy to welcome Tomas Rupšys to Maxima group of companies. He has broad experience in retail across multiple European markets”.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Indonesia's Matahari supermarket chains join Tokopedia, seeking better online sale
Publicly listed retail firm PT Matahari Putra Prima (MPPA) is adding its supermarket chains to e-commerce platform Tokopedia in an effort to boost online sales and make up for a pandemic-induced drop in in-store shopping. MPPA launched Tokopedia virtual stores for its 23 supermarket chains, including Foodmart, Hyfresh, Hypermart and Primo. MPPA corporate secretary and public relations director Danny Kojongian said online sales made up around 8% of the company’s total sales. It aims to increase that figure to 15% by 2021.
Source: thestar.com.my
Australia: Harris Farm Markets to open first store in Brisbane on Wednesday in historic return to Queensland capital
On Wednesday this week Harris Farm Markets will officially open at Clayfield, marking the family-owned company’s historic return to the Queensland capital. In fact, to the very site they owned 30 years ago. Queensland is the first state for the NSW-based business to expand into, and there’s a reason: Queensland has a history with Harris Farm Markets.
Source: medianet.com.au
Amazon launches its digital payment services for businesses in UAE and region
Amazon has become the latest tech giant to offer its digital payments services in the UAE and wider region, joining Apple, Samsung and Alibaba. With Amazon Payment Services, businesses that use the service will be able to accept online payments using both global and local payment methods, offer instalments to customers, and monitor payment performance. The service will be available in the six Gulf markets plus Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
Source: gulfnews.com
China: Tencent-backed Chinese e-grocery startup Missfresh bags $305mln in investment
Missfresh, a Chinese online grocery startup, announced that it has raised 2bln yuan (US$305.6mln) in strategic investment from a Qingdao government-guided consortium. Founded in 2014, Missfresh operates an ecommerce platform that provides fresh food - including fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, and beverages - through an integrated supply chain and network of mini-warehouses across the country.
Source: techinasia.com
UK: Asda Group Limited publishes annual Statutory Accounts
Supermarket Asda has filed its annual Statutory Accounts for the financial year to 31st December 2019 with Companies House. The accounts for Asda Group Limited includes the financial activities of all Asda stores, distribution centres and online operations including food, clothing, general merchandise and fuel. Asda’s sales for 2019 were £22,899.2mln (2018 £22,916.5mln). Like-for-like sales (excluding fuel and VAT) declined by 0.8%.
Source: corporate.asda.com
Holland: 'Jumbo wants to sell retail properties worth 300mln euro'
Supermarket chain Jumbo is negotiating with real estate fund Annexum about the purchase of 62 retail properties. That writes Het Financieele Dagblad (FD). Jumbo would like to sell the properties and then rent them again. The sale would cost about 300mln euro. Most of the properties for sale, 55 units, are old C1000 establishments.
Source: nu.nl
China: Suning.com launches new online platform
Suning.com, owner of Carrefour China, has launched a new ecommerce platform called Yunwang Wandian in December. The retailer has spun off its online retail platform and e-commerce services activities into newly formed business Yunwang Wandian with approximately CNY6bln (US$915.5mln) in funding. The capital was provided by Shenzhen Capital Group, SenseRobot Management, Ningbo Xianshi Enterprise Management and Central China Asset Management at a reported US$3.8bln valuation.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com