Ahold Delhaize’s Retail Busin
ess Services, LLC, has appointed a new President; Roger Wheeler will take the helm of the new company—an independent Ahold Delhaize company that provides support services to Ahold USA and Delhaize America local brands. “With Roger’s extensive background, familiarity with the Ahold USA and Delhaize America businesses and demonstrated leadership of the U.S. Integration Management Office, we are confident Roger is the right person to lead this new organization,” said Ahold USA’s Chief Operations Officer, Kevin Holt.H-E-B and Shipt Bring Grocery Delivery to Waco, Texas
Shipt, a growing grocery de
livery service, and H-E-B have added Waco, Texas to their delivery partnership. This partnership, which originally launched in San Antonio in May 2016, allows Shipt and H-E-B to offer the convenience of grocery delivery to more than 3.6 million households across Texas.Natural Grocers predicts Top 10 nutrition trends for 2017
Natural Grocers has released its predictions for the top 10 nutrition trends for 2017. The grocer talked to a panel of the company's category managers, nutrition experts, and editorial staff to find out what trends to expect in nutrition and health for the upcoming year. Click here for the list
Waitrose sees sales rise close to a third in week leading up to Christmas
Upmarket UK retaile
r Waitrose has said that its total sales for the week leading up to 24 December were up 31.1% on the same period last year. However, the retailer noted that the sales boost was largely due to Christmas Day and Boxing Day falling in the equivalent week in 2015. Notably, for the following week, ending 31 December total sales were down 12.5% at the retailer, for the same reasons.Austrian retailer Billa expands retail network
Leading Austr
ian retailer Billa reported that it has expanded its store base in the past year, with 47 new, refurbished or technologically updated branches across Austria, creating more than 850 jobs. The new store layout facilitates collaboration with local suppliers, creating a one-stop shop. Billa has also started to incorporate the latest POS technology in its stores, as well as developing a new marketing strategy.Metro reduces price of over 1,000 products in Croatia
The Croatian unit of German retailer
Metro has promised a minimum 12% discount on more than 1,000 products popular in the HoReCa sector to help its clients mitigate the effects of a new income tax that came into force on 1 January 2017. Between January and March, Metro Cash & Carry will change the selection of the products on promotion every two weeks. The reduced price will be available in all nine wholesale centres in Croatia.Auchan invests €250 million in Italian relaunch
French retailer A
uchan is planning to invest €250 million on the relaunch of its shopping malls in Italy by 2018, by expanding and remodelling existing outlets, business daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported. The starting point will be Sardinia, where the French retailer is investing €50 million in four shopping malls - two in Cagliari (Santa Gilla and Marconi), one in Sassari (Predda Niedda) and another in Olbia. In 2016, the island’s malls saw approximately 20 million visitors and a turnover of over €230 million, not including that of Auchan superstores.Dutch retailer Coop Supermarkten marks milestone year with record growth
Dutch retail coop
erative Coop Supermarkten has reported a record turnover of over €1.1 billion for 2016 – an increase of €35 million in revenue, or 5.4%, compared to 2015. The company has put the strong growth down to its increasing numbers of outlets and customers, as well as a higher average spend per customer. During 2016 – the company's milestone 125th year – Coop opened nine new stores, sold four and closed one, bringing its current number of supermarket outlets to 258.
Sino Grandness to sell through WeChat Food
Sino Grandness Food Industry Group’s full range of own-branded products will be sold online through Wechat Food. A mobile platform has been developed by Wechat Food, and under the agreement products such as Garden Fresh beverages, Grandness canned food and Hao Tian Yuan snack food will be available. Sino Grandness chairman/CEO Huang Yupeng says the collaboration with Wechat Food is in line with government initiatives to promote the new economy with online and offline business models working together “to achieve synergies in cost savings and to generate greater turnover.”
When will Amazon Fresh launch in Germany?
The possible expansion of the online delivery giant Amazon into grocery deliveries in Germany has been a cause for concern for the current providers of these services. “We have to take the necessary precautions to deal with Amazon Fresh,” states Rewe CEO Alain Caparros in the German newspaper 'Rheinischen Post'. He clearly doesn’t like the idea that customers perceive Amazon as the best retailer. Retailers have to realize that the combination of a brick and mortar store with an online store is essential, if they don’t want to lose the battle with Amazon, continues Caparros.