Casino, the French retail group, is hoping to benefit from an
improvement in exchange rates in the second half after a first half
of steady growth driven by its domestic discount store operations.
The steady decline in market share of small stores is not due to
the growth of hypermarkets - targeted by tough 1996 legislation -
but by that of supermarkets, claims Anged, the Spanish association
of large store operators.
Ahold has sold another non-core business as part of its bid to
focus on food retailing. The Golden Gallon fuel and convenience
store chain in the US is the latest divestment, with North
Carolina-based The Pantry acquiring the 138-store...
Hypermarkets account for the biggest share of retail revenues in
Poland, despite the fact that there are relatively few stores. But
while the format remains popular, smaller outlets, such as
supermarkets and discount stores, are likely...
The UK retailing industry is bracing itself for perhaps the biggest
event of the year, as it awaits the results of the Competition
Commission's report on who can bid for Safeway. The decision is
likely to reshape Britain's...
Petrol station shops are becoming a progressively more important
outlet within a growing and increasingly consolidated convenience
retail market, according to the latest report from Datamonitor.
Ahold has completed the sale of its Chilean unit Santa Isabel to
local retailer Cencosud for $77m, much-needed cash at a time when
the Dutch group is facing reduced profits as a result of its
accounting irregularities.
The British company best known for its Cream Crackers, has entered
the fast-growing snack market with the launch of a new cracker
brand, JacoBites. The group will invest £5m in promoting the new
crackers, which come in three different...
Spar, the German retail group, dropped deeper into the red last
year after restructuring costs of €272 million. But a positive
performance from the Netto discount chain gave some cause for
optimism to Spar's French owner, Intermarché.
Belgian retail group Colruyt has reported profits up 22 per cent
for 2002/03, well ahead of analysts expectations and despite
continued troubles at its computer retailing arm.
Rewe, the German retail and wholesale operator, has acquired its
Swiss counterpart Bon appétit, a move which will help Rewe
consolidate its position as the number three food retailer in
Europe.
After several difficult years, Marks & Spencer is now focusing
on innovation to sustain its recovery. Its successful Simply Food
format is to be trialled in motorway service stations, while the
self-checkout system will be rolled...
Budgens has rolled out the first of its new-look convenience stores
under the Quickstop fascia, with all 33 of its Budgens Express
stores set to follow suit in the near future. But with bigger
players such as Tesco and Sainsbury moving...
Avure Technologies has supplied a high-pressure processing (HPP)
system to a US-based food company which aims to increase the safety
of processed onion.
There are numerous potential candidates to acquire the South
American operations of the troubled Ahold group, but as market
analysts Euromonitor point out, such an acquisition would not be
without considerable risks. The debate is...
A new Future Store concept from Germany's Metro group was unveiled
last week, packed with all the latest electronic features designed
to make shopping easier for the consumer and category management
simpler for the retailer....
Smaller suppliers can offer retail chains such as Marks &
Spencer products which have a real point of difference compared to
their rivals - but the trick is not to overextend production and
diminish the very elements which make...
Safeway is not the only UK retail chain attracting interest from
potential investors. Smaller rival Somerfield yesterday confirmed
that it had received an approach from a consortium of bidders, said
to include the former chairman...
Swiss co-operative group Migros has reported turnover in excess of
SF20 billion (€13.4bn) for 2002, shrugging off poor economic
conditions and lower sales from three of its divisions.
Companies across the food retailing sector are making good progress
with their use of new technologies and demonstrating the importance
of IT within their operations, according to the latest research
from CIES - The Food Business...
Carrefour, Europe's biggest food retailer, continued to improve its
market dominance in the first quarter of 2003, but sales were once
again impacted by currency problems in Latin America, Asia and
Eastern Europe.
Spanish retail group Eroski has reported an 11 per cent increase in
profits for 2002 to €89.4 million, driven by the expansion of both
its stores and the products on offer there.
The expansion of European retailers such as Tesco in Asia does not
have a detrimental effect on local business, according to a new
report. In fact, hypermarket growth in Thailand has fuelled the
expansion of independent food retailers...
Guyenne & Gascogne, the retail group which is the leading
franchise holder for Carrefour in France, has reported a solid
increase in sales for 2002 helped by store expansions and synergies
created by Carrefour's 2000 merger...
A strong performance from its cash & carry and electronic goods
units helped German retail company Metro to a 4 per cent increase
in sales for 2002 - a good performance in light of declining
turnover in the German retail sector...
Selling off its loss-making units over the last year has put
troubled Portuguese retailer Jeronimo Martins on the road to
recovery. But with a high debt level still in need of reduction,
the company still has a way to go before it...
Leader Price discount stores and Monoprix city centre supermarkets
were among the main drivers of growth for Casino, the French food
retailer, in 2002. They will also drive growth in 2003, but a
recovery at Dutch unit Laurus is also...
After a 12-week trial of a self checkout system at Marks &
Spencer last year, Tesco has become the latest British food
retailer to investigate the self-scanning option. The company will
trial an ACM 700 machine from PSI at one...
The six bidders for UK supermarket group Safeway have now become
five with the withdrawal yesterday of the US investment group KKR.
The remaining candidates, all of them retail specialists, now await
a decision from the regulators...
Claims by Spanish hypermarket groups that new store restrictions
are benefiting only supermarkets and not traditional retailers have
been confirmed by the latest Nielsen data, which shows supermarkets
taking market share from both...
Spanish supermarket chain El Arbol is expecting to complete the
disposal of nearly 200 stores by the end of March, and is confident
that its newly streamlined business will return to the black by
2004.
French retailer Casino saw its turnover for 2002 cut by 5 per cent
as a result of poor exchange rates, but nonetheless registered
growth of nearly 4 per cent.
Supermarket operators are constantly striving to make the shopping
experience as pleasurable as possible for their shoppers, a vital
part of winning customer loyalty in an increasingly cutthroat
business. But the look of the store...
French retail rivals Carrefour and Auchan have both announced
developments for their foreign subsidiaries. In Spain, Carrefour
has sold 45 Champion supermarket outlets, while in the US, Auchan
will close its two Texan hypermarkets...
One less Saturday than in 2001 had a significant effect on French
hypermarket and supermarket sales in December, according to the
latest figures. A Saturday in December can often see sales 35 per
cent higher than in the rest of the...
Trail blazers in e-commerce UK retailer Tesco announced this week
that for the first time ever booming online grocery sales have
reached more than £10 million (€15.6m) in a week - an encouraging
portent for yuletide spending.
Euromonitor continues its analysis of UK retailers with a look this
week at media means and private brands. According to the report, UK
retailers Tesco and Sainsbury's are leveraging the trust consumers
have in their brands to...
The pressure on margins caused by the demands of the retail sector
is nothing new, but a recent survey of prices charged by four
supermarket chains in Spain has prompted one producers' association
to warn of economic meltdown.
Switzerland's Coop group is to buy the Waro supermarket chain for
an undisclosed sum, a move which will enable it to meet its target
for expanding the size of its stores and product range without the
lengthy approval procedure...
A month of promotions in October helped lift French retail sales in
October compared to the previous year, but September's figures from
Spain show a marked decline in food sales, at least compared to the
previous month.
The turnaround at one of the UK's best-known companies Marks &
Spencer is complete, with the clothing and food retailer posting
first half profits well ahead of expectations. Keeping this
momentum going in the future will...
As the Internet slowly carves a place in the day to day running of
food businesses, B2B marketplace Transora, one of the ongoing
survivors in a difficult environment, has formed an alliance with
GlobalNetXchange (GNX), a B2B marketplace...
Too much legislation can be a bad thing, at least when it comes to
restricting the free growth of the Spanish retail sector, according
to speakers at a conference held in Madrid last week.
For small and medium-sized food producers, getting their products
listed with the retail chains is a constant struggle, but as
visitors to last week's SIAL exhibition heard, the supermarket
groups are ready to listen, provided...
Since the recent trial launch of its square soup cans in two of its
UK stores, the packaging industry has been keenly observing
proceedings at supermarket group J. Sainsbury's. The retailer made
the bold move to trial the new...
Hypermarket and supermarket food sales dropped sharply in
September, partly because of unusually high sales in August, but
also because of an underlying downturn in consumer spending, warns
the Paris Chamber of Commerce.
After a lengthy period of restructuring, the first half of 2002 was
a good one for the UK's Co-operative Group, driven by an excellent
performance from its food retail arm... just the kind of welcome
new chief executive Martin...
Fees charged by European retailers such as Tesco and Carrefour have
been investigated by the Thai authorities, which claim that such
charges - levied on suppliers for the listing of their products -
are illegal.