Brazil: Americanas gets OK for restructuring plan, eyes $10bln debt cut
Creditors of Brazilian retailer Americanas approved a restructuring plan, which features a $2.5bln capital injection by main shareholders and a divestment agenda aimed to cut its around 50bln reais ($10.28bln) debt.
Source: reuters.com
US: Gatik and Kroger celebrate successful autonomous trucking operations with City of Dallas and Texas state partners
In a significant step forward for autonomous B2B logistics, Gatik AI Inc. (Gatik) and The Kroger Co. announced the successful launch of the companies' multi-year commercial collaboration, which sees Gatik's medium-duty autonomous box trucks transporting fresh, customer-favorite products from Kroger's state-of-the-art Customer Fulfillment Center (CFC) in Dallas, Texas, to multiple retail locations.
Source: businesswire.com
Y Combinator-backed Guac trains algorithms to predict grocery demand
Entrepreneurs Euro Wang and Jack Solomon say that they experienced first hand the micro-level effects of the forecasting problem at their local supermarket, which often ran out of their favorite guacamole. "It turns out that even the largest retailers struggle to predict future demand and frequently overstock and understock inventory", Wang told TechCrunch in an email interview. Inspired to attempt tackling the problem with tech, Wang and Solomon co-founded Guac, a platform that uses AI to predict how many items grocers will sell on a per-item basis each day at a given store location.
Source: techcrunch.com
US Foods donates more than $12mln in 2023 to address hunger-relief efforts
US Foods Holding Corp., one of America's largest foodservice distributors, announced that the company and its associates have donated more than $12mln in food, supplies and monetary contributions to address hunger-relief efforts across the country throughout 2023, the equivalent of approximately 5mln meals or approximately 225 truckloads of product, through its corporate hunger-relief campaigns.
Source: businesswire.com
UK: Asda reveals higher finance costs as boss defends debt structure
Asda's chief financial officer Michael Gleeson told MPs that total debt within the Asda company hierarchy was £4.2bln, £500mln of which will become due in February and switch to a floating rate that will add "at least £30mln" to financing costs.
Source: news.sky.com
UK: Tesco shopping hack slashes cost of Christmas dinner vegetables to just 15p
Tesco has brought in an exclusive offer for its Clubcard members offering staple Christmas dinner vegetables at just 15p. This offer includes a 2kg bag of potatoes, 800g carrots, 500g Brussels sprouts, 500g parsnips, swede, broccoli, and red cabbage. Without the offer, these items cost 99p, 48p, 95p, 65p, 69p, 78p, and 80p respectively.
Source: mirror.co.uk
UK: Just Eat announce nationwide partnership with Morrisons Daily
Just Eat has partnered with Morrisons, one of the UK's leading supermarket chains, for on-demand delivery across its Morrisons Daily convenience stores. The partnership will initially roll-out to almost 60 stores in December, with plans to expand to over 650 stores early next year.
Source: justeattakeaway.com
Malta: Lidl to sell 'slightly imperfect' fruit and vegetables at reduced prices
Lidl Malta has announced it will start selling "slightly imperfect" fruit and vegetables at reduced prices. Through this scheme, Lidl will fill 'food saving bags' with fruit and vegetables that would have otherwise been thrown away for aesthetic reasons. Each bag weighs 4kg and can be purchased at a discounted price of €3.
Source: lovinmalta.com
Cost of Christmas dinner suggests UK inflation crisis is easing
The price of Christmas dinner is bringing some relief for British shoppers in the latest sign that the shock to food prices is beginning to unwind. The price of seven festive staples including turkey, parsnips and Brussels sprouts has risen by 5% over the past year, according to Assosia data provided to Bloomberg. Assosia, a retail research firm, looked at the cost of a frozen medium Turkey crown, Maris Piper potatoes, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, gravy granules, cranberry sauce and Christmas pudding on December 11 in 2022 and 2023. The data are based on the average pre-promotion price across the "big four" supermarkets - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons.
Source: bnnbloomberg.ca
Croatia: Studenac plans to open 2,500 new stores
Studenac, Croatia's largest grocery chain by store count, sees room to open 2,500 new outlets nationwide under its proximity format. Studenac expects to add 120 stores to its network by the end of this year and accelerate the pace of expansion in 2024 and beyond.
Source: esmmagazine.com