Europe news & analysis

With all major retailers now having reported, what have we learned about the state of the grocery market in 2012? Discounters triumph Discounters were the clear winners delivering their best ever Christmas performance. Key to their success were investments in premium, fresh and festive ranges which gave them new relevance to Christmas shoppers.  Aldi in particular stood out, with sales ...

Leading UK wholesaler Booker has announced performance figures for the third quarter of its 2012/13 financial year, with total sales up 3.1%.  Sales of non-tobacco products provided the strongest element of growth up 4.2%, while tobacco sales (still accounting for around a third of the total) increased by 1.3%. Growth primarily like-for-like Much of Booker's total growth is being generate...

Swiss retailer Volg grew turnover by 2.4% in 2012, and grew store numbers by 26, to 916. Forecourt stores performed best The group's main growth engine, Volg village stores, reported 0.4% turnover growth to CHR1.07bn.  The forecourt fascia TopShop was the best performer, growing sales by 14% to CHF180m.  Volg said its strategy of focusing on proximity and convenience was paying off in the...

Zabka has announced that it will add a further 400 stores in 2013 as part of its aim to operate 5,000 in the country by the end of 2017, up from 3,000 at the end of 2012. Company to expand organically and through acquisitions To meet its target in 2013, Zabka said it would invest PLN1.5 billion in adding new stores under both the Zabka and Freshmarket brands. Expansion will come about both th...

Blakemore Trade Partners, the Blakemore division responsible for supporting independent SPAR stores across Wales, the midlands and the south-east, is the latest operation in the SPAR UK network to launch phased promotions across its member stores.  Starting from 17 January, Blakemore will introduce a new phased cycle of promotions that will see a succession of new promotions implemented in each we...

It has been reported that The Co-operative Food has appointed Sainsbury's Andrew Mann to the newly created role of customer director, and Howard Reed, former New Look and Asda director, has been appointed to the newly created role of food chief information officer. A breadth of experience Andrew Mann is currently the director of insight and loyalty at Sainsbury's . He has previously hel...

Metro Group has reported sales growth of 1.2% to €66.7bn for the full year 2012, delivering earnings in line with its revised guidance of €2bn. Christmas trading "satisfactory" Q4 saw a slow start to Christmas trading, but momentum gained towards the end of the year and Metro has described the result as "satisfactory", particularly at Media-Saturn which saw sales grow by 1.3% during the pe...

Casino has reported Q4 2012 sales of €12,856m, up 35% on a total basis following the full consolidation of Latin American operations and up 3% on an organic basis. While international sales grew by 76% during the quarter, domestic sales declined 3% as household consumption lagged. For a detailed sales breakdown click here . French hypermarkets down more than 10% Net sales in France declin...

Major UK wholesaler, Bestway has revealed its financial performance figures for the year to 30 June 2012, with overall group sales surpassing £2.5bn for the first time.  Within that, its key UK wholesaling division saw turnover increase by 5.7% reaching £2.3bn.  Wholesaling profitability was down slightly to £58.2m, impacted by costs for the integration of acquired businesses and the set up of new...

Austria's Pfeiffer Group wants to increase its holding in the retailer Zielpunkt, to become the majority owner, according to press reports. Wants to be majority owner in three years Pfeiffer Group currently owns 24.9% of Zielpunkt, but wants to take over the remaining shares within three years, according to comments made by CEO Erich Schönleitner to local press.  The immediate focus however...