SpartanNash said it would celebrate grand reopenings of eight stores in Nebraska and Iowa newly converted to its Family Fare banner this week. The remodeled and rebranded stores are former Bag N Save and No Frills stores in Omaha and Bellevue, Neb., and in Council Bluffs, Iowa, acquired as part of Spartan's acquisition of wholesaler Nash Finch. (supermarketnews.com)Asda: Tackling food waste saves customers £57 a year
Supermarket giant reveals how a project run in partnership with the University of Leeds has helped customers cut food waste and reduce their shopping bill. Asda customers saved themselves an average of £57 a year thanks to a campaign designed to curb food waste in the home, the supermarket giant will announce today. The results of the campaign, which was developed in conjunction with the University of Leeds, will be presented today at a reception at the Houses of Parliament hosted by Labour MP Hilary Benn. (businessgreen.com) AU: IGA 'picking up Woolies shoppers'
Independent supermarkets are absorbing the customers that Woolworths is losing, the boss of Australia's largest IGA network claims. Ritchies IGA supermarkets chief executive Fred Harrison says IGA stores are achieving positive like-for-like sales growth - a sign the independent supermarkets' market share is growing, contrary to analysts' belief that shares are shrinking and customer numbers are dropping. UBS analysts warned in June that IGA supermarkets supplier Metcash's margins and long-term market share in the food and grocery sector will fall, "creating earnings and share price pressure, not reflected in the current price". (au.finance.yahoo.com) Spanish Eroski to open 19 petrol stations
Spanish distribution chain Eroski has announced plans to open 19 petrol stations in the country over the next two years. As reported by financialfood.es, the thinking behind the strategy is that an expansion of its petrol station network will increase the attractive and competitiveness of Eroski stores. "The opening of petrol stations inside our supermarkets will provide an additional growth in sales of food of 4%. (esmmagazine.com) UK: Activist grabs a Poundland bargain
Steinhoff had finally found a bid target in Poundland before anyone else had spotted it, and last week agreed to a pretty fair price with management to acquire the struggling value retailer. After two failed attempts to make a big European acquisition, it was shaping up to be a case of lucky at last for the South African retailer. But Elliott Associates, the activist investor, just threw a spanner into the works. The American group has acquired 16.37% of Poundland, according to a filing on Friday. That makes what looked like a tidy deal for Steinhoff into a much more messy affair. (Bloomberg)Emart opens first store in Mongolia
South Korean discount retailer Emart, part of the Shinsegae Group, will open its first store in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on July 28, as part of its efforts to expand its presence in the global market. The first Emart Mongolia store will be operated by local retailer Sky Trading, a subsidiary of one of Mongolia's largest business groups Altai Holdings. (igd.com)Russian Dixy Group: Turnover cherries has grown fourfold
Dixy Group Divisions have analyzed customers’ seasonal preferences since the beginning of summer, the retailer says in a press release. Compared with last year, turnover of sweet cherry at neighborhood stores has grown fourfold, of fresh strawberry in Victoria supermarkets – by 50%. Victoria chain analysts also note a growth in the turnover of mushrooms – by 50% – and for fresh pumpkin: compared to the beginning of last summer, the growth in the turnover of this article has doubled. Compared with the beginning of the summer last year berries demand increased this June by 46%, fresh vegetables - about 20%.US: SuperValu to rebrand acquired Food Lion stores
SuperValu announced plans to convert 22 recently acquired Food Lion grocery stores to the company’s own Shop ‘N Save format. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the Federal Trade Commission. (meatpoultry.com)Spar International announces expansion into Mongolia
Spar, the world’s largest food retail voluntary chain, has today announced a new partnership with conglomerate Max Group LLC, to open its first stores in Mongolia. The partnership, which will see up to 60 SPAR-branded multi-format stores in Mongolia by 2020, was made at an official signing ceremony which took place during the visit of the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, to Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. (internationalsupermarketnews.com) Sweden’s Axfood posts 4.9% increase in net sales in Q2
Swedish retail group Axfood posted a 4.9% increase in consolidated net sales to SEK 10,991m in the second quarter of the year, the retailer announced in a statement. Like-for-like sales at group owned stores increased 0.9% in the period. Operating profit for the quarter was SEK 494m, corresponding to an operating margin of 4.5%. (esmmagazine.com) US: Sprouts complies with California organics recycling regulations
Sprouts Farmers Market has expanded its food waste diversion program to meet new California requirements on organics recycling, it was announced Monday. Quest Resource Holding Corp. designed and deployed an organics recycling program at all 86 of Sprouts’ California stores, ahead of new mandatory commercial organics recycling regulations that take effect on Jan. 1.China: Alibaba in strategic cooperation with 20 foreign supermarket chains
The largest China-based e-commerce operator Alibaba Group has formed a strategic cooperation with 20 supermarket chains around the world to introduce them for B2B2C operations at Tmall, a B2C online shopping platform under Alibaba, which also delivers groceries, according to Alibaba. The supermarket chains include US-based Costco, Germany-based Metro, UK-based Sainsbury's, Italy-based Coop, IPER and Eurospin, Spain-based DIA, Netherlands-based Albert Heijn, South Korea-based Emart and Lottemart, Japan-based Fresta and AEON, Thailand-based Kingpower, Australia-based Woolworths and Metcash and New Zealand-based Countdown, Alibaba noted. (digitimes.com) Amazon will open new Spanish headquarters in summer 2017
Amazon has announced it will open a new and bigger Spanish headquarters. It will host Amazon’s current 400 corporate employees as well as provide capacity for over 1,000 employees. “We have already hired hundreds of highly talented people here and we are looking forward to hiring hundreds more”, says François Nuyts, Vice President Amazon Spain & Italy. (ecommercenews.eu) India: Reliance Retail Q1 revenue up 46%
Reliance Retail, which runs Reliance Fresh too, has reported a strong set of results for the first quarter in FY2016-2016. The revenues of Reliance Retail, have increased 45.8% to $0.9bn in Q1, compared to US$0.68bn in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, its pre-tax profit has seen an uplift of 21.2% to US$0.04bn The strong performance is driven by sales growth in non-food products. (igd.com)
