Amazon pledges $2bln venture capital fund to invest in clean energy
Amazon.com Inc has announced that it is to launch a $2bln venture capital fund that will focus on technology investments to reduce the impact of climate change and support sustainable development. The Climate Pledge Fund will invest in companies across industries such as transportation and logistics, energy, storage and utilisation, manufacturing and materials, and food and agriculture, the e-commerce giant said.
Source: esmmagazine.com
US: Giant Food installs electric vehicle chargers
Giant Food said that it is installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that drivers can use for free. The deployments are happening at Giant store locations in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. “Working with Volta, the industry leader in electric vehicle charging networks, installation of 60 EV charging stations will be completed by the end of 2020, and 200 are expected to be installed by mid 2021 as part of Giant's sustainability initiative”, the food retailer said.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
US: Smart & Final adopts AI solution
Smart & Final is rolling an AI analytics platform from Hypersonix to support the retailer's enterprise analytics and digital transformation initiatives. The move follows the completion of a pilot program that began 2 months ago. “Hypersonix is a key ingredient in leveraging actionable analytics that can be operationalized by our business teams as part of our on-going digital transformation”, said Ed Wong, EVP and chief digital officer at Smart & Final. “We established a great innovation-centric collaboration with Hypersonix where we are finding new ways to address our needs in key strategic areas for our business”.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
PriceSmart announces opening of 8th club in Costa Rica and resumes construction of new warehouse club in Colombia
PriceSmart, Inc. announced that on June 17, 2020, the Company opened its newest warehouse club in Liberia, Costa Rica, bringing the total number of warehouse clubs in operation by the Company to 46. The Liberia club is the 8th club in Costa Rica and is located in the Guanacaste province, approximately 130 miles from the nearest PriceSmart club and 3 hours from the capital city of San José. The Company also announced that it is resuming construction of a new warehouse club on 170th Street in Bogota, Colombia. The Company expects to open what will be its 47th warehouse club in the second fiscal quarter of 2021.
Source: prnewswire.com
Russia: Lenta opens two new supermarkets in St. Petersburg
Russian retailer Lenta has announced that it has opened two new supermarkets in St. Petersburg. The first store, located in 6 Mikhaila Dudina street, has a sales area of 982 square metres. It is equipped with nine cash registers and offers parking for approximately 100 vehicles. The second store, located in 25 Dunaisky avenuе, offers a sales area of 1,079 square metres, nine cash registers, and around 80 parking spots. The new openings take the total number of Lenta stores in Russia to 248.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Hungary: Ecommerce €2.2bln in 2019
Ecommerce in Hungary was worth 781bln Hungarian forint (2.2bln euros) in 2019. The domestic online retail turnover saw a 17% increase compared to the previous year. And if the expectations are correct, ecommerce in Hungary may exceed 4.9bln euros by 2024. The data come from a joint research by Reacty Digital and eNet.
Source: ecommercenews.eu
Portugal: Mercadona invests 8mln in new offices in Gaia
The company remains focused on the expansion plan and expects to open a total of 10 new stores by the end of the year in the districts of Aveiro, Porto and for the first time, in Viana do Castelo. After opening the Mafamude supermarket, Vila Nova de Gaia, in December last year, Mercadona announced the move to the company's future offices, which are located in a building built above the supermarket and which will house the 150 employees of the northern company from the country. 8mln euros later, the building will be the new headquarters of the company created by Mercadona for the operation in Portugal, Irmãdona Supermercados.
Source: jornaleconomico.sapo.pt
Belgium: Delhaize wants 30 additional stores this year
Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize wants to open 30 additional stores this year, on top of the 23 it already opened in the first half of this year. If anything, the coronavirus crisis seems to have given the chain a boost. The 30 additional stores would mostly be proximity stores: "Delhaize has learnt a lot from the Covid crisis", the chain said in a press release, pointing to the rise in market share for such smaller stores. In the midst of the chaos, they have reaped the rewards for adapted opening hours and locally focused product range - yet another trend that was intensified by the Covid crisis.
Source: retaildetail.eu
UK: Poundland owner Pepco's sale by Steinhoff delayed by coronavirus
The boss of Pepco Group, the owner of British discount retailer Poundland, said the coronavirus crisis has delayed the sale of the group by its troubled South African parent company Steinhoff. Steinhoff, which has been battling the fallout from a 2017 accounting scandal, said last year it was evaluating a range of strategic options for Pepco Group, including a potential public listing, private equity sale or trade sale. “As far as how that happens and when? I think clearly Covid has thrown things up in the air”, Pepco Group CEO Andy Bond told Reuters.
Source: reuters.com
Spain: SPAR Gran Canaria pleased to welcome more customers as lockdown eases
As the lockdown measures ease in Spain, communities in the Canary Islands are once again looking to their local SPAR Supermarkets to meet their daily shopping needs. Increasing the customer count instore at one time to approximately 50% of the pre-pandemic levels will ensure more shoppers can purchase their groceries.
Source: spar-international.com
Morrisons to open UK's first national chain of supermarket takeaways
Morrisons has announced it is opening a chain of new supermarket takeaways, with the launch of a new hot food-to-go service in all 402 of its cafés nationwide. As part of the opening, customers can choose from a range of wallet-friendly takeaway meals for the whole family - including breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea or dinner options from as little as £1.95.
Source: morrisons-corporate.com