UK grocery prices dropping fast | Casino to sell stake Big C

Lulu to open seven more hypermarkets in Oman
Middle East's retail major Lulu Group has announced plans to open seven more hypermarkets in Oman in the next two years. (tradearabia.com)

UK grocery prices falling in record pace since 2014
The Battling UK supermarket giants are bringing happy news to the shoppers and caution to its discounter rivals as they continue to cut costs to stay alive in the price war. According to newly revealed figures grocery prices are falling in a record pace. Trade magazine The Grocer reviewed prices of 60,000 grocery items in UK’s big four supermarket chains, Tesco, Sainsubry’s, Asda and Morrisons and found out that prices saw a downfall of 2.8% till February. (internationalsupermarketnews.com)

India: Amazon launches hyperlocal grocery app
Amazon India, an online marketplace, has launched a hyperlocal grocery delivery service app in Bangalore to take on other established online grocery delivery firms. Through this app, customers can order daily essential items from store chains such as Big Bazaar, Godrej's Nature's Basket as well as a nearby kirana store and make their deliveries in two hour delivery. With this, Amazon.in will now compete with hyperlocal startups such as Grofers, Big Basket and PepperTap. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

Zero food waste policy for all French supermarkets
France has become the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food, forcing them instead to donate it to charities and food banks. (theguardian.com)

Irish Supervalu names Mark Gross as new CEO
Supervalu has hired a dealmaker lawyer with 20 years' experience in the grocery business as its new CEO. The Eden Prairie-based company, which owns Cub Foods, said Wednesday that Mark Gross will take over for Sam Duncan, who announced plans in October to retire by the end of this month. Gross will start on Friday, almost three years to the date that Duncan started the CEO job at Supervalu. (startribune.com)

German Rewe wants government to disapprove merger
Rewe wants to dissuade the Minister for Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel to issue a special permit against the controversial merger of its competitors Edeka and Kaiser’s Tengelmann. Rewe does this in a statement to the Ministry of Economy against a ministerial permit for the supermarket union and reserves a path in front of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Düsseldorf. “A ministerial approval can not be granted,” it says in the letter, as reported by Reuters on Wednesday. The Rewe lawyers explain the conditions for a ministerial approval had not been met. (internationalsupermarketnews.com)

UK: Co-op buys 15 Budgens stores
Co-operative Food has acquired 15 convenience stores from Booker for an undisclosed sum. The stores – all currently trading as Budgens – are predominately located in London and the South East. “The acquisition of these Budgens stores absolutely supports our focus on convenience store retailing'', the company said. (manchestereveningnews.co.uk)

UK: EasyFoodstore forced to close after it runs out of stock
EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s budget food store, which charges just 25p each for everyday groceries, has been forced to close temporarily after less than two days as it has run out of stock. A spokesman for easyFoodstore, in Park Royal, north-west London, said: “The level of interest has been completely overwhelming. The last people through the door today had travelled up from Canterbury. (theguardian.com)

Finnish Kesko: falling food prices impact 2015 sales
Finnish grocery retailer Kesko has released its financial statements for 2015, revealing that total net sales declined by 4.3% to €8,679m. Performance in Kesko’s grocery business declined by 1.7% to €4,673m. This was partly attributed to a drop in prices. (igd.com)

Indonesia: HappyFresh Indonesia optimistic
Indonesia’s middle- and upper-class consumers are set to propel the trend of online grocery shopping, according to Jakarta-based grocery-shopping app HappyFresh. “The outlook has never been more promising,” says CEO Markus Bihler. “Opportunities abound in this region with its sophisticated, food-loving consumers, growing wealth and rapid urbanisation. The continued increase in mobile adoption and broadband penetration has helped boost our online grocery sales.” (insideretail.asia)

Italy: Another positive year for Crai
Italian retailer Crai has revealed a 13% increase in turnover for 2015. Crai will launch an organic private label line in February. Crai Bio will comprise 70 products and is aimed at meeting the growth opportunities it sees in the healthy living and eating trend. (igd.com)

Costco Wholesale posts 2% lift in January sales
Costco Wholesale on Wednesday reported net sales of $8.3bn for the four weeks ended Jan. 31, an increase of 2% as compared to the similar period last year. Comparable store sales were up 1% in the U.S. (drugstorenews.com)

Latin-America Cencosud sets out four-year investment plan
Latin-American powerhouse Cencosud plans to invest USD2.5bn over 2016 - 2019. Increasing efficiencies, enhancing its omnichannel strategy, and remodelling stores all featured as part of a future focused plan announced this week. (igd.com)

AU: Evidence of 7-Eleven underpayment 'racket'
Addressing revelations of widespread underpayment, 7-Eleven's new chairman admitted the practice of "cash-backs" was still happening in some franchises. "Unfortunately underpayment is happening in the form of cash-back which seeks to subvert enhanced record-keeping protocols," Michael Smith told a hearing of the Senate inquiry into temporary work visas on Friday. (sbs.com.au)

India: BigBasket's loss trebles to 60 crore in FY15
Online grocer BigBasket's net loss trebled to over Rs 60 crore for the year ended March 31, 2015 against a net loss of Rs 21.6 crore in the year-ago period, according to the latest documents filed with the Registrar of Companies. (sbs.com.au)

US: Target updates Market Pantry line
Target has redesigned the packaging of its 15-year-old Market Pantry brand, which includes more than 1,900 products across 100 categories. (supermarketnews.com)

'Fresh Food Market in Asia to be driven by online grocery shopping'
According to the latest research study released by Technavio, in terms of volume, fresh food consumption in APAC is expected to reach close to 1.43bn tons by 2019. "Online grocery shopping is expected to emerge as the key distribution channel of fresh food products in the APAC region until 2019. Speedy delivery and economical selling price are major growth drivers of online grocery shopping. (businesswire.com)

UK: Nisa Retail and North East Convenience Stores part company
Press reports have revealed that the supply relationship between leading convenience buying consortium and distributor, Nisa Retail and 31 store regional retail chain, North East Convenience Stores (NECS) is to be terminated as of 1 August 2016. (igd.com)

UK: Ocado relationship with Morrisons under fresh pressure
Morrisons’ online tie-up with Ocado is coming under fresh pressure as the supermarket chain attempts to loosen the ties between the two companies. Please, click here to read more

Asda puts UK's first supermarket wonky veg box on sale
The UK’s first supermarket ‘wonky vegetable’ box goes on sale on Friday, containing enough ugly potatoes and knobbly carrots to feed a family of four for an entire week for just £3.50. The vegetables have been selected from farmers’ crops because they are misshapen, have growth cracks or are smaller or larger than average. (theguardian.com)

Fairway may miss covenants in April
Fairway Group Holdings, corporate parent of New York-based Fairway Market, said Friday the company may fall out of compliance with financial covenants at the end of its fiscal year in April, with the possibility it might not have enough working capital to fulfil its debt obligations. It said it is exploring alternatives to raise additional capital "to de-lever the balance sheet and fund additional growth initiatives, including investments to rebuild sales and pursuing new stores opportunistically." (supermarketnews.com)

Swedish Axfood net sales up 7.2% in 2015
Swedish retailer Axfood has reported a 7.2% rise in net sales to SEK 41,247m for 2015 as it announced plans to launch eCommerce for its Willys and Hemköp banner this year. (esmmagazine.com)