US: RILA joins push to pass Restoring Investment in Improvements Act
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) has joined 850 national organizations in urging Congress to co-sponsor the Restoring Investment in Improvements Act. The bipartisan, bicameral legislation would spur job creation and investment by restoring a 15-year depreciation recovery period for qualified improvement property (QIP). The provision was inadvertently deleted from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act addressing tax reform, due to a drafting error. “There are many compelling reasons, in addition to the ‘zero’ cost, for Congress, to act as quickly as possible to address this problem”, noted the letter that RILA signed. “Current law is slowing investments in QIP and commercial renovation projects - the opposite of lawmakers’ longstanding goal to grow such investments and fuel-related economic activity. Not surprisingly, it is causing numerous negative ripple effects for individuals and businesses, including on job creation, sales of QIP products and building supplies, property values, building occupancy and rental income, cost-saving energy-efficiency gains, and even on fire safety.”
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Tops expands Instacart in Pennsylvania
Tops Markets LLC has completed its second and largest Instacart expansion into Pennsylvania, with five more stores now offering the third-party grocery delivery service. The expansion brings the total number of Tops stores with Instacart to 134, giving more than 90% of Tops customers access to the program provided by the San Francisco-based company. Pennsylvania Tops stores now offering Instacart are in Warren, Bradford, Youngsville, Sheffield and Kane. “We’re excited to bring even more convenience to the shoppers in our Pennsylvania market”, said Jillian Sirica, manager, digital marketing for Williamsville, New York-based Tops. “This expansion marks our 11th since Tops launched Instacart services in 2017, and the largest in Pennsylvania since April, when we launched in four other cities.”
Source: progressivegrocer.com
Lithuania: Maxima announces plan to invest €10mln in solar power plants
Lithuanian retailer Maxima Grupė has announced plans to invest more than €10mln in the construction of solar power plants across the Baltics over the next five years. The solar power plants will have the capacity to generate up to 2 megawatts of electricity. The retailer also aims to install solar panels in its stores to step up efforts to move to green energy sources. The Maxima XX store in 20a Saharova Street in Riga will be the first outlet to be equipped with solar panels. The installation of solar panels will take place during its renovation in the second half of the year.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Sweden: Axfood announces ‘strong start to 2019’
Axfood said consolidated net sales rose 4.2% to SEK11.9bln (US$1.3bln) during the first quarter, with like-for-like sales up by 4.0%. The retailer said the results were particularly pleasing given that Q1 2019 did not benefit from ‘a boost at Easter, one of the year’s biggest food holidays’. Axfood said it had ‘recorded a higher number of customer visits to [its] stores as well as [its] sites online’. The company pointed to the ‘outstanding performance’ at Willys, where it enjoyed ‘significant sales growth, higher market shares and stronger margins’. This was supported by Hemköp ‘growing more than the market, driven by a high pace of growth in its franchise operations’. Axfood said that after the end of the quarter it had signed a cooperation agreement with Östenssons, which will lead to it becoming a Hemköp franchisee from 1 September 2019.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Meicai and Wumart among shortlisted bidders for Metro’s $1.5bln China ops
Meicai, a Chinese startup that helps farmers sell vegetables to restaurants, and supermarket operator Wumart Stores Inc. are among firms picked for the next round of bidding for German food wholesaler Metro AG’s $1.5bln, Chinese business, people with knowledge of the matter said. Local grocery chain Yonghui Superstores Co. and Suning Holdings Group, the parent company of Chinese electronics retailer Suning.com Co., were also invited to make second-round offers, the people said. Bids are expected to be submitted by late May or early June, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Meicai and Hopu Investment Management Co. are in talks for a potential joint bid, according to the people. The startup is also considering partnering with other Chinese buyout firms, one of the people said. Wumart has separately been weighing whether to team up with a private equity firm, another person said.
Source: dealstreetasia.com
Sainsbury's opens UK's first checkout-free grocery store
Sainsbury's has upgraded its Holborn Circus Local store to make it the UK's first checkout-free grocery store. The experiment will allow Sainsbury's to test its SmartShop and Scan, Pay & Go technology in a bespoke food-to-go store, in a move designed to make grocery shopping quicker and more convenient. Customer and colleague feedback from the initiative over the next three months will help Sainsbury's develop the SmartShop Scan, Pay & Go app further before being rolled out more widely. While other retailers, notably Tesco and Co-op have opened stores that allow payment with a smartphone, this Sainsbury's store is unique in that it does not offer checkouts as an alternative way to pay (though it does have a helpdesk to support anyone who wishes to pay with cash or cards). Currently, 82% of transactions at the store are cashless. At Holborn Circus, all customers will scan and pay for their groceries using the SmartShop Scan, Pay & Go app. They will scan their groceries as they go round the store, pay in the app and scan a QR code before leaving, with no need to queue or pay at a till. The store experiment builds on the success of Sainsbury's SmartShop Scan, Pay & Go app.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
France: Spar introduces app for independent retailers
Spar France has launched an app called Retail Operations, which allows independent retailers to enhance the operational levels of their stores across the country. Using the app on their smartphone, tablet or PC, retailers can view key data such as average basket size, number of customers and store turnover, and daily sales performance, as well as check yearly sales by month, or monthly sales by week. The supermarket chain is offering the service to retailers who have signed up to its loyalty programme. In addition, the company has expanded the availability of its Réapprovisionnement Assisté par Ordinateur (RAO) digital restocking tool to its entire store network across France.
Source: retail-insight-network.com
UK: Electrical fault caused fire at Ocado distribution centre
British online grocer Ocado said a huge blaze which destroyed its major distribution centre in Andover, southern England, was caused by an electrical fault in a battery that caused a robot to catch fire. Ocado said it has taken action intended to eliminate the risk of such an event occurring again. It has introduced additional localised smoke detectors and removed the plastic lid on its robots. It said the lid serves no practical purpose and its removal has not impacted the efficiency of the robots in any way. Ocado also intends to add heat sensors in the ambient product storage grid which are in addition to the existing sensors in the chilled storage grid. The firm also noted that the first generation battery charging units were only used at the Andover customer fulfilment centre (CFC) and not at its other three CFCs.
Source: uk.reuters.com
Russia: Lenta sees like-for-like sales up 5.0% in Q1
Russian retailer Lenta has posted a 5.0% increase in sales in the first quarter of its financial year. The retailer’s performance was driven by a 3.8% increase in traffic to its stores, and a retail ticket increase of 1.2%. The group said that total sales grew by 6.0% in the first quarter of the year, to RUB 99.0bln (€1.37bln). It opened one hypermarket in the period, while one hypermarket and four supermarkets were closed, leaving the retailer with a total store count of 375 stores as of 31 March 2019, comprising 244 hypermarkets and 131 supermarkets.
Source: esmmagazine.com
South Africa: Spar Group set to take majority stake in Piotr i Paweł: Reports
South Africa's Spar Group is poised to take majority control of Polish retailer Piotr i Paweł, according to media reports, adding to the group's European retail operations in Ireland, southwest England, and Switzerland. News portal wiadomoscihandlowe.pl reported that Spar Group, alongside TFI Capital Partners, are to establish a new company, which will formally operate the Piotr i Paweł business. No details have emerged as to the value of the acquisition, which will be subject to competition approval by UOKiK, the Polish competition authority. According to wiadomoscihandlowe.pl, the takeover of the business will 'almost certainly' lead to the end of the Piotr i Paweł name, with many of the stores likely to transfer to the Spar banner in time. This presents a potential issue in that the Spar Polska brand has thus far been operated by the Bać-Pol Group. News reports in Poland suggest, however, that this contract may have come to an end.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Finland's Kesko: Interim report for the period 1 January to 31 March 2019
The Group's net sales in January-March totalled €2,400.8mln, a decrease of 0.6% in comparable terms. Comparable operating profit was €57.5mln. Comparable operating profit was impacted by acquisitions that increased seasonal profit fluctuations, which had a €-3.6mln impact, and by a decline in car trade sales and operating profit, mainly related to the implementation of WLTP testing, which meant that the division recorded an operating profit of €7.7mln, €3.4mln less than in the comparison period. Operating profit was €51.6mln. Comparable return on capital employed was 9.5%. Comparable profit before tax was €34.6mln. Comparable earnings per share were €0.33. In comparable terms, the net sales for continuing operations for the next 12 months are expected to exceed the level of the previous 12 months. The comparable operating profit for continuing operations for the next 12-month period is expected to exceed the level of the preceding 12 months.
Source: kesko.fi