Canada: Downtown Toronto is getting a new Farm Boy
Downtown Toronto is getting its third Farm Boy store. Set to open at the corner of Front and Bathurst on January 28, the 33, 478-sq.-ft. store will include many of the hallmarks associated with Farm Boy, including local farm fresh produce, pizza grill and sushi stations, hundreds of private-label products and more than 19 varieties of fresh, homemade soup.
Source: canadiangrocer.com
US: Southeastern Grocers launches IPO
Southeastern Grocers Inc. has launched an initial public offering of 8.9mln shares of its common stock to be sold by certain of its stockholders, at an anticipated price of $14-$16 per share, in accordance with a previous filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company isn’t selling any shares in the offering.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Geissler’s Supermarket loses its matriarch
The matriarch of Geissler’s Supermarket has died. Mary (Geissler) Nilsson, 89, was the daughter of founder A.F. Geissler and the grandmother of the chain’s current leaders, according to Patch.com. No cause of death was immediately given.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Imperfect Foods secures $95mln Series D investment commitment
Imperfect Foods, the company reimagining sustainable grocery delivery, announces it received a commitment to fund $95mln in a Series D growth investment. The Series D financing will be led by Insight Partners, who also led the Series C round 8 months ago, and Norwest Venture Partners. Imperfect Foods had triple digit growth in 2020 over the year prior, and exited the year with a revenue run rate in excess of $500mln.
Source: prnewswire.com
Romania: Retailer Mega Image leases cold storage, offices in logistic hub near Bucharest
Supermarket chain Mega Image, part of Ahold Delhaize group, which operates one of the widest networks of stores in Bucharest, has leased 4,500 sqm of cold storage and office spaces in Chitila Logistic Hub. The logistics park developed by Globalworth and Global Vision is located west of Bucharest.
Source: romania-insider.com
Amazon sues EU antitrust regulators for letting Italian case go ahead
Amazon is suing EU antitrust regulators for allowing the Italian competition watchdog to pursue its own case against the U.S. online retail giant over the way it selects sellers, arguing that this should be wrapped into an EU investigation. Amazon took its case to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest, asking it to annul the EU’s decision to exclude Italy from the wider investigation, a court filing shows.
Source: reuters.com
UK: Central England Co-op reports festive sales up 9.2%
In line with much of the UK grocery retail sector major regional co-operative Central England has reported a buoyant Christmas trading performance, announcing sales growth of +9.2% for the 3 weeks from the middle of December to 2 January. With 260 stores across 16 counties of midland and eastern England, Central England Co-op reported especially strong performance in its many community-based convenience stores. Reflecting this skewing, the peak of its festive uplift actually came on New Year’s Eve, when sales were up 11%, rather than in the Christmas build-up itself, when shoppers tend to favour big stores. In contrast to 31 December, sales on Christmas Eve were a more modest +4.7%.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
South Africa: Massmart full-year sales drop by 8% due to Covid restrictions
Walmart-owned retailer Massmart posted an 8% drop in 2020 annual sales, partly blaming lockdown restrictions that may have complicated a turnaround plan unveiled more than a year ago. The owner of Makro and Game stores is in the middle of a punishing revival plan that has seen the closure of its high-end electronics chain DionWired, job cuts, and abandoning fresh produce retail at its flagship Game outlets.
Source: businesslive.co.za
High-altitude Swiss solar project to power supermarket chain
Swiss energy group Axpo and partner IWB will develop a 2.2 megawatt solar plant high in the Alps and sell the power to supermarket chain Denner in a 20-year deal that makes more environmental than financial sense, the partners said. The Muttsee site at a dam 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) high in the Alps will be the largest alpine solar plant in Switzerland, with nearly 5,000 solar modules producing around 3.3mln kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
Source: reuters.com
UK: Nisa achieves record store recruitment in 2020
Co-op wholesale subsidiary Nisa has announced that it successfully onboarded 620 new stores to its distribution network in the course of 2020, a significant rise on 2019. This provides a significant platform for growth into 2021 following the significant boost seen in performance over 2020, with Nisa sales reported up 14% in the half year to July.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
UK: John Lewis to repay £300mln Covid loan two months early
John Lewis is to repay a £300mln government Covid support loan almost two months early, as the retailer upgraded its profit guidance after stronger than expected sales during the crucial festive season. The upgrade means the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, appears to have avoided reporting potentially its first full-year loss since the employee-owned business was set up in 1920.
Source: theguardian.com
Germany: Greenman OPEN signs second framework agreement for €46mln
Greenman OPEN, Germany’s largest food-retail focused investment fund, has entered into a €46mln framework agreement with Schroder Holding GmbH, a German developer, securing the rights to acquire seven new stand-alone EDEKA markets. Located in strong catchment areas in East Germany, the supermarket properties are all pre-let to EDEKA on 15-year leases and are set to be delivered between 2021 and 2023.
Source: greenman.com