US: UNFI improves visibility into supply chain data
United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) has partnered with food and beverage data specialist Crisp to help keep CPG brands updated on supply chain status. New York-based Crisp said that food and beverage suppliers will be able to use its cloud-based commerce platform to share, manipulate and use UNFI data within their own business intelligence tools such as Excel and Power BI, enabling them to more easily track UNFI sales and inventory levels across retail sales channels.
Source: supermarketnews.com
7-Eleven Canada launches a delivery app
As demand for delivery continues to boom, 7-Eleven Canada is launching its proprietary delivery app, 7Now, in Canada. "Our delivery business in Canada has grown 10-fold from a year ago,” Norman Hower, VP and general manager of 7-Eleven Canada, told Canadian Grocer's sister publication Convenience Store News Canada in a recent interview.
Source: canadiangrocer.com
US: Stater Bros. stamps brand on expanded online grocery service
Stater Bros. Markets is expanding its online grocery presence under its own banner through a partnership with grocery e-commerce specialist Mercatus. Plans call for Stater Bros. to assemble an end-to-end, scalable e-grocery platform - from the online shopping front end and fulfillment to payment and digital advertising - using solutions from Mercatus’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform and technology partners, Toronto-based Mercatus said. The Southern California grocer operates 170 stores.
Source: supermarketnews.com
US: Fresco y Más marks 5 years in business
Southeastern Grocers Inc. is celebrating the fifth birthday and founding anniversary of its Fresco y Más banner, created to provide customers with an authentic Hispanic shopping experience. The first Fresco y Más location made its debut on June 15, 2016 in Hialeah, Florida. Since that time, the banner has grown to 27 locations throughout South, Southwest and Central Florida.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
UAE: Majid Al Futtaim partners with RELEX to tailor on-shelf inventory across Carrefour stores
Majid Al Futtaim, the leading shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has partnered with RELEX Solutions, provider of unified retail planning solutions, to optimize on-shelf inventory for individual stores based on local demand via automated store-specific planogramming. Through this partnership, RELEX will service all of Carrefour’s 350 stores across 17 countries that are part of Majid Al Futtaim Retail’s growing regional portfolio.
Source: businesswire.com
UK regulator accepts new Asda owners offer to sell petrol stations for deal clearance
Britain’s competition regulator has accepted an offer from the new owners of the Asda supermarket chain to sell 27 petrol stations to satisfy concerns the takeover could lead to higher fuel prices and will not refer the deal to an in-depth probe. Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity group TDR Capital completed their purchase of a majority stake in Asda from United States giant Walmart in February in a deal valuing the chain at 6.8bln pounds ($9.6bln).
Source: reuters.com
SPAR Switzerland marks new era with opening of first EUROSPAR store
SPAR Switzerland opened its first EUROSPAR flagship supermarket on 3 June in the municipality of Schänis, marking the start of a new phase for the SPAR operator. On a retail sales area of 1,200m2, the store offers about 15,000 food and non-food products, various serviced counters, and an instore café. The adjacent SPAR Express store enables customers to shop until late in the evening and on Sundays. SPAR Switzerland has also launched a new SPAR Training Academy on the same premises.
Source: spar-international.com
EBay to sell S.Korean unit for about $3.6bln to Shinsegae, Naver - media
EBay will sell its South Korean business to retailer Shinsegae Group's E-Mart Inc and web portal operator Naver for about 4tln won ($3.6bln), local newspapers reported.
Source: reuters.com
Israel: REWE Group, Viola Growth investment takes Trigo’s total funding over $100mln
Trigo, an Israel-based computer vision company disrupting retail with frictionless checkout technology, has announced an investment from German retail giant REWE Group, and Viola Growth, a top Israeli tech investment firm. The new investments take Trigo’s total fundraising to over $100mln.
Source: businesswire.com
Carrefour France wants to outsource "ethnic stores" to Moroccan franchise partner
Carrefour is said to be in talks with its Moroccan franchise partner Label'Vie regarding managing some of its so-called ethnic stores: these are supermarkets in neighbourhoods and suburbs with a large Muslim community, in which the French retailer is struggling to make a profit.
Source: retaildetail.eu
UK: Amazon delivers fresh produce from farms to foodbanks
Farmers are being asked to donate surplus fresh produce to charity so it can be used by food banks rather than sent to landfill or ploughed back into fields. It comes after internet giant Amazon teamed up with the NFU. Farmers in the Midlands can call their NFU regional office to arrange for surplus eggs, fruit and vegetables to be collected by Amazon’s fleet of vans and delivered to food banks in towns and cities.
Source: fwi.co.uk
Coop Italia members report sales growth in 2020
4 of the 8 cooperatives that constitute Coop Italia reported growth in retail sales in 2020. Coop Lombardia ended the year with a 9.3% growth in production value to €1.05bln. Net profit amounted to €6.9mln, up from €6.6mln in 2019. The cooperative merged 37 Coop Vicinato Lombardia (CVL) stores and opened 2 new outlets in 2020. Sales at Nova Coop amounted to €1.1bln during the financial year, registering a growth of 3.48% compared with 2019. Net profit amounted to €6.1mln. Unicoop Tirreno closed 2020 with a net profit of over €1mln, up from a loss of €4.8mln in 2019. Sales increased 0.5% year-on-year to €875.3mln.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Kenyan foodtech startup Kune raises $1mln pre-seed for its ready-to-eat meals service
Kune is one of the most recent food-tech startups, and the six-month-old Kenyan-based company is announcing that it has closed a $1mln pre-seed round to launch its on-demand food service in August. Pan-African venture capital firm Launch Africa Ventures led the pre-seed round. Other investors that took part include Century Oak Capital GmbH and Consonance, with a contribution from ecosystem management firm Pariti.
Source: techcrunch.com