Walmart Canada opens distribution centre in British Columbia
The Canadian branch of multinational retailer Walmart has opened an advanced grocery distribution centre in Surrey, British Columbia. Equipped with up-to-date technology, the 300,000ft² facility is designed to process 150,000 orders a day, which will then be delivered to 45 Walmart stores in British Columbia. The $175m facility will provide pantry items, fresh and frozen grocery goods.
It has generated 300 construction and engineering jobs during its building phase and is expected to create more than 250 jobs once fully operational. The Surrey Grocery Distribution Centre also will act as the future hub for Walmart’s electric fleet, including semi-trucks and a fully electric yard truck fleet. To improve its sustainability, the distribution centre uses LED lighting and intelligent controls, which can reduce its energy consumption by 70%.
Walmart Canada president and CEO Horacio Barbeito said: “Facilities like this one are an investment in the community, our associates and customers and allow our suppliers to get their products into the hands of Canadians across the country even faster.”
Source: Retail Insight Network
Supermarket stocks soar despite rising inflation
Inflation is one of the best things that could happen to the supermarket industry. The increasing rate of inflation is assisting these supermarkets in reporting larger volumes of sales. These supermarket chains are well-known for offering a wide range of products. As a result of growing inflation, shoppers are flocking to supermarkets, which provide a wide range of products, from low-cost to high-end items. Secondly, with inflation at an all-time high, the practice of eating at home, which took off during the pandemic, should resurface. Restaurant prices grew at a reduced rate last month, but are still up 6.9% year-over-year, the highest 12-month gain since December 1981.
In such a market scenario, where food and beverage prices are constantly increasing, buying food from a supermarket is unquestionably a more cost-effective option than eating out at a restaurant.
Food inflation is at an all-time high. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, inflation climbed 8.5% year-over-year in March, a four-decade high. Food prices rose 8.8% year-over-year, with grocery prices jumping by 10%. TipRanks researched two supermarkets that seem to benefit most in terms of stock prices; Kroger and Albertsons.
Source: Tipranks
US consumers spend ten times more on groceries at Walmart than Amazon
Last year, Amazon captured almost five times the share of U.S. household spending on electronics, appliances, sporting goods, hobbies, music and books than Walmart. But Walmart still has a massive edge in one major category: food, which has long been Walmart’s single largest category. The average American household still spends roughly 10 times as much on food and beverages at Walmart than at Amazon. Walmart has always had a comfortable lead on Amazon in this category, capturing a total of $264 billion in sales in 2021, compared to Amazon’s $27 billion.
Amazon has never taken in more than 2.1% of consumers’ total spending on food and beverages and shows no sign of raising that percentage anytime soon. Since acquiring Whole Foods in 2018, the share of food and beverage spending won by Amazon has shifted between 1.7% and 2.1% — a leeway of just 0.4 percentage points.
Source: Pymnts.com
Grocery Outlet goes chainwide with Instacart delivery
Since making its e-commerce debut with Instacart last fall, Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. has rolled out the online grocery delivery service to almost all of its stores. Instacart said in a blog post on Thursday that nearly 400 Grocery Outlet stores in California, Oregon, Washington and Pennsylvania now offer its same-day delivery service. The rollout follows a six-month pilot at 68 California stores that Grocery Outlet announced in October, marking the value grocer’s entry into the online grocery arena.
“We remain excited about the long-term potential of our e-commerce initiative and partnership with Instacart enabling us to expand our customer reach,” Eric Lindberg, CEO of Grocery Outlet, said in a statement. “Following positive results from our pilot, we recently completed a rollout to nearly all stores."
Source: Supermarketnews
Walmart puts $3 million toward disaster preparedness efforts as extreme hurricanes become more frequent
Since 2005, Walmart has played a part in responding to disasters across the U.S. and worldwide. Although Walmart will continue to respond in the moment, the business is taking steps to ensure that the most vulnerable communities are prepared and able to quickly respond to disasters.
“Lack of preparedness can have lasting economic and social impacts on communities — especially communities of color,” writes Brooks Nelson, senior manager of disaster preparedness and response at Walmart, in a company statement. “When communities are unable to quickly respond to disasters or access necessary resources, the impacts can increase inequality and hurt communities in the long-term.”
The Walmart Foundation has invested more than $3 million in a group of organizations helping local government leaders and community-led organizations in predominantly Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities in the Gulf Coast. These investments include funds targeting the St. Bernard Project, the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Disaster Management, and the Nature Conservancy and Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy at Tulane University.
Source: GoBankingRates
Aldi assures low prices to its customers
In a statement by Aldi CEO, Jason Hart, Aldi stressed its commitment to delivering affordable prices. While there are things everyone gets wrong about Aldi, it appears that its low costs are something shoppers can count on even as the brand is dealing with skyrocketing inflation. The Facebook post emphasized the chain's desire to give its customers the cheapest price for high-quality products, with, "No tricks. No gimmicks." A specific bolded line of the message emphasized, "No matter what happens in the world around us, ALDI will always be the low-price leader in every community we serve."
The statement also referenced the increasing costs of gas and high home energy expenses, which customers in the comments really appreciated. Not only is Aldi a grocery store chain, but the way it values employee engagement and community outreach may get many people's respect. According to Comparably, 100% of employees surveyed said they were proud to work at the chain, which makes it appear that the company is dedicated to its people.
Source: Mashed
UK: Tesco reports 6% increase in revenue for fiscal year 2021-22
UK-based supermarket chain Tesco has reported a 6% increase in revenue to £61.3bn ($80.5bn) for the fiscal year 2021-22 compared to the previous year. The company’s group sales for the year, including sales of fuel, rose 3.0% at constant rates from last year. Driven by ‘strong’ sales, Tesco’s statutory operating profit reached £2.56bn, up by 65.5% from last year. The retailer’s adjusted operating profit grew 58% to £2.82bn at an actual rate. Tesco’s total retail adjusted operating profit amounted to £2.6bn, up by 34.9% at an actual rate from the prior year, while its adjusted diluted (EPS) rose by 88.8% to 21.86p. The company’s pre-tax profit also rose by 219.7% to £2.03bn.
Source: Retail Insight Network
Netherlands: More supermarkets move into super fast delivery market
More supermarkets are going into direct competition with fast grocery delivery services like Gorillas and Flink, by signing alliances with food delivery firms. Albert Heijn said this week it will start testing fast delivery services in two Amsterdam stores next week, after signing agreements with Deliveroo and Thuisbezorgd. The three firms already had a deal to deliver AH To Go products. Spar is also working with Thuisbezorgd’s bike couriers using supplies from 15 of its own stores. If the service catches on, the experiment will be expanded, Spar said on Thursday.
Jumbo started the trend earlier this year when it signed up to work with fast grocery service Gorillas, but the deal is different to the AH agreement, in that the products will come from Gorillas’ own dark stores. Jumbo also pledges delivery times of 10 to 20 minutes, compared with 30 minutes for AH. Online grocery shopping is becoming increasingly popular with Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Picnic and HelloFresh now included on the list of biggest online retailers.
Source: Dutch News
UK: Tesco distribution centre near Bristol sold for more than $135mA Tesco distribution centre near Bristol has been sold off for more than $135m (£102m) to an unknown buyer. The 540,000 sq ft facility, which was originally developed by the supermarket in 2010, serves over 400 stores across the South West and South Wales. Property asset management firm Roebuck, a UK subsidiary of GFH Financial Group (GFH), completed the off-market sale.
“The sale of Tesco Avonmouth has delivered our Korean investors significant out performance," said Hugh Macdonald-Brown, managing partner at Roebuck. "It was fantastic to work with Capstone on another successful investment and the intention is to hopefully find new projects to work on together. Roebuck is actively pursuing opportunities to recycle capital from these sales for either UK and European logistics assets.”
Source: Business Live
UK: Asda finance chief quits, replaced by former Morrisons CFO
The finance chief of British supermarket group Asda has resigned after less than a year in the job and is being replaced by his counterpart at rival Morrisons, Asda said on Thursday.
Asda, Britain's third-largest grocer, said chief financial officer John Fallon, who was promoted to the role last June, had decided to leave the business and "take on new challenges". He would be succeeded by Michael Gleeson, who last month said he was stepping down from the same role at Morrisons, the No. 4 player. Gleeson would not join the business until next year, Asda added.
In the meantime Steven Nuttall, vice president commercial finance, would take on some extra responsibility in the day-to-day running of the finance function. Fallon's departure is the latest in a raft of senior exits from Asda since it was purchased in February 2021 by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa and private equity company TDR Capital in a 6.8 billion pound ($8.9 billion) deal.
Asda has been without a CEO since Roger Burnley abruptly left the group in August. Four months ago new chairman Stuart Rose said appointing one was a priority.
Source: Reuters