Argos has announced the launch of a service with Google Assistant that enables shoppers to reserve products with their voices. Shoppers can also ask Google to search for Argos products, check availability and locate nearest stores. As reported by Sainsbury's, owner of Argos, one in 10 households in the UK now have a digital home assistant, and voice shopping is forecast to be worth £3.5bln in the UK by 2022.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Germany: Owners to inject $464mln into Karstadt/Kaufhof merger: report
The owners of a proposed German department store chain formed by the merger of Karstadt and Kaufhof, have agreed to provide the company with a cash injection of 400mln euros ($464mln), a magazine reported. Canada’s Hudson’s Bay, which bought Kaufhof in 2015, has agreed to a joint venture with Austria’s Signa Holding, which owns Karstadt and will hold around 51 percent of the new business, sources had told Reuters last week. German business magazine Wirtschafts Woche reported that the owners of the merged company have agreed to inject the cash, with HBC and Signa due to provide 100mln euros each, citing people close to the negotiations. The additional 200mln euros will come from the sale of two properties currently owned by a consortium led by Hudson’s Bay, Wirtschafts Woche said. HBC did not immediately comment on the report while a spokesman for Signa could not be reached.Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Germany: Owners to inject $464mln into Karstadt/Kaufhof merger: report
Source: reuters.com
UK: Tesco to launch new discount chain Jack's next week
Tesco will unveil its new discount chain Jack’s next week as the UK’s biggest supermarket throws down the gauntlet to the German discounters Aldi and Lidl. The first of the stores, named after the Tesco founder, Jack Cohen, will be unveiled by the supermarket’s chief executive Dave Lewis, in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, on Wednesday.
Source: theguardian.com
Germany: Aldi Nord CEO steps down amid major overhaul at discounter
Marc Heussinger, CEO of Aldi Nord, has resigned and is likely to be replaced by his deputy, Torsten Hufnagel. Marc Heussinger stepped down last week under pressure to hit targets and catch up with Aldi Süd and Lidl, rival discount grocery chains. Although Aldi is known throughout Europe and the US, it’s actually two different retailers in Germany after a family spat: Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. The former is larger in Germany, but owns Trader Joe’s in the US; Aldi Süd has more stores abroad, including Aldi-branded shops in America.
Source: global.handelsblatt.com
China: Alibaba teams up with MegaFon and Mail.ru in Russia
Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group has agreed to take a 10% stake in one of Russia’s biggest tech players, to boost its development in Russia. Alibaba will own 48% of AliExpress Russia as a result of a deal signed with Russian Direct Investment Fund, mobile operator Megafon and internet group Mail.ru. The three Russian companies will have a combined 52% stake in the ecommerce platform after contributing cash, shares and other assets. Megafon will swap its 10% stake in Mail.ru for a 24% stake in AliExpress Russia. Mail.ru will contribute its Pandao ecommerce business and cash in exchange for a 15% stake in AliExpress Russia, and RDIF will acquire a 13% stake in AliExpress Russia.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Belarus: Eurotorg announces IFRS financial results for 1H 2018
Eurotorg, the largest food retailer in Belarus, announced its reviewed condensed consolidated financial results under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the six months ended 30 June 2018. To optimise the Company's shareholding structure, and to consolidate offline retail, e-commerce and drugstores under a single common holding company, the Company's shareholders completed a reorganisation of the Company on 28 June 2018. Following the completion of this reorganisation, this and future financial and operating results disclosures by the Company will consolidate the above-mentioned business lines. Revenue increased by 14.9% year-on-year (“y-o-y”) and reached BYN 2.18bln (revenue in USD terms increased by 9.6% y-o-y and amounted to USD 1.1bln). Net retail sales increased by 11.5% y-o-y and reached BYN 1.95bln (net retail sales in USD terms increased by 6.3% y-o-y and amounted to USD 0.98bln) mainly driven by like-for-like (“LFL”) sales growth and new store openings. The gross margin decreased slightly by 0.8 pp, but remained strong at 25.8%. The slight decrease was due to higher transportation expenses, growth of the share of wholesale in revenue and the launch of Brusnichka stores. Net profit improved by 16.6% y-o-y to BYN 68.7mln (USD 34.5mln), with the net profit margin ticking up slightly to 3.2%.
Source: globenewswire.com
Italian retailers warn of 50,000 job losses if Sunday trading curbed
Italian supermarket chains have forecast tens of thousands of job losses if the country’s populist government goes ahead with plans to curtail Sunday trading. Luigi Di Maio, the deputy prime minister, said the government would introduce measures limiting Sunday trading in large shopping centres before the end of the year in an attempt to preserve family traditions. Sunday opening hours were liberalised in 2012 by the then prime minister, Mario Monti, in an effort to prompt economic growth, despite pressure from the Catholic church, unions and small businesses to maintain the traditional day of rest.
Source: theguardian.com
Lidl sets up office in Singapore
Lidl has opened a procurement hub in Singapore, focused on sourcing both non-food as well as textile products across 12 Asian countries. The retailer is committed to sourcing quality products that come from the most suitable factories. As Lidl‘s offer is built around private label, establishing a procurement hub in Singapore enables it select suppliers in this region more quickly and effectively.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
UK retail sales: food boosts figures
The latest figures from the British Retail Consortium Retail Sales Monitor (BRC-RSM) show that UK retail sales increased by 1.3% in August 2018, and by 0.2% on a like-for-like basis. This total growth was slower than July's 1.6% and June's 2.3%, as non-food sales were still feeling the impacted of hot summer weather. Food sales saw a positive performance, significantly outperforming non-food. Over the three months to August, like-for-like sales increased by 2.6% and total sales were up 3.9%. The summer sunshine continued to boost grocery sales, despite temperatures cooling off.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
US: 1st Giant Food Store attains zero-waste status
Giant Food Stores LLC’s Cleona, Pennsylvania, store has become the first in the Ahold Delhaize USA chain to reach zero-waste status. As defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, zero waste means that 90% or more of a store's total waste is being diverted from a landfill or incineration. "It’s been a total store effort as we set up each department, so it’s easy to do the right thing when it comes to lessening our environmental impact," noted Judy Knarr, assistant store manager at the Cleona location and green captain for her district. "We have associates across the store who have embraced our recycling efforts and collectively have changed the store’s culture to achieve this goal."
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Kroger dropping ‘ClickList’ name for grocery pickup
In an effort to help shoppers better distinguish between its click-and-collect and growing home-delivery options, The Kroger Co. is dropping its “ClickList” branding for click-and-collect in favor of the more descriptive Grocery Pickup. Kroger had used ClickList to describe its service for grocery pickup since launching it at a Liberty Township, Ohio, store in late 2014. However, Kroger, its banner websites and mobile applications have replaced references to ClickList with Grocery Pickup. (The change does not apply to Harris Teeter, which is retaining the Express Lane branding that predated ClickList and Kroger’s acquisition of the Matthews, North Carolina-based chain).
Source: winsightgrocerybusiness.com
CAN: Loblaw to take $368mln charge related to Tax Court ruling
Loblaw Companies Ltd. will record a $368mln tax charge related to its former Barbadian banking subsidiary Glenhuron Bank Ltd. The charge of 98 cents per share will be recorded in the company’s third quarter, but Loblaw says it plans to appeal a tax court ruling that was issued last week. The tax court decision centres on the Canada Revenue Agency’s reassessments of Glenhuron for several tax years dating as far back as 2001.
Source: canadiangrocer.com
US: Walmart doubles spending in battle for truckers
Walmart Inc., pinched by the worsening shortage of truckers, plans to double its spending on attracting and retaining drivers by year-end. The retailer will offer referral bonuses of up to $1,500, shorten the on-boarding process for new hires by more than a month and broadcast its first national TV ad focused on its 7,500 truckers. The program aims to fill vacancies and improve the image of long-haul driving as a career amid a tight labor market. Walmart, which has about 6,500 trucks, ranks No. 3 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest private carriers in North America. “To be candid, right now I could hire a few hundred drivers,” Tracy Rosser, Walmart’s senior vice president of transportation, said. “It is getting tougher and tougher to find qualified drivers. It’s a really serious situation right now.”
Source: ttnews.com
