Convenience news

As Albert Heijn puts further efforts to spotlight its low prices and looks to attract new shoppers to its ecommerce operations, we round up news from the retailer. Albert Heijn tests delivery service for small households Albert Heijn is testing a new delivery service for small households with the launch of an app called AH Compact. The new delivery service is set to meet the needs of one an...

Asda has unveiled two new trial partnerships with leading brands, as it follows through on its 'test and learn' strategy to make stores more engaging to shoppers. B&Q in-store shops A collaboration with the UK's leading home improvement retailer will see compact B&Q stores installed in four Asda superstores. The first two stores, which will open in Dagenham and Sheffield later this year, wi...

Co-op have announced interim results for the first half of 2020* showing a 7.6% increase on last year.  This puts the retailer ahead of the forecasted 6.8% growth for the total UK food and grocery market in 2020 according to IGD's lastest channel forecasts . * 26 weeks to 4 July 2020 Highlights Revenue up 7.6%, driven by food and wholesale businesses Significant increase in co...

Mobile World Corporation, which operates a chain of convenience stores called Bach Hoa Xanh, will partner farmers to grow clean and vegetables for sale at its stores. 4K Farm project with experts The retailer will invest in a model of growing clean vegetables in 4K Farms with four criteria: No pesticides No growth agents No preservatives No genetically modified varieties ...

Gridserve the renewable energy business that plans to open more than 100 electric-only forecourts across the UK has announced the retailers it has partnered with to provide the complementary services on its sites.  As the construction of Gridserve’s first location, at Braintree in Essex, approaches completion it has been revealed that it will incorporate retail units supplied by Booths, WH Smith,...

In response to more consumers staying at home, retailers in Japan are investing more in their online grocery offer. Convenience stores expanding into delivery In May 2020, Lawson expanded the scope of stores offering the Uber Eats food delivery service to include some stores in 10 prefectures across Japan. Lawson started offering the delivery service in August 2019, initially within Tokyo. ...

Monthly data updates from the three largest convenience chains in the world, 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson, focusing on sales, customer footfall and average customer spend in Japan.  Our view Overall, COVID-19 has boosted supermarket and online sales in Japan, but impacted convenience negatively. Japanese convenience stores have struggled during the pandemic. A fall in customer numbers vi...

Japan’s anti-monopoly regulators are encouraging convenience store chains to provide franchises the option to reduce store trading hours. 24 hours trading a hot topic In a report by the Fair Trade Commission, it said, "We indicated that it could be a problem under the anti-monopoly laws. We requested immediate improvements and asked that improvements be reported to us." The commission war...

National symbol group retailer SPAR UK has announced the appointment of Lee Johnson as its Operations and Strategy Director.  Having joined the organization on 17 August, Lee Johnson now has responsibility for the group’s finance, governance, IT supply chain and strategic planning. Joined from Coty Lee Johnson has come to SPAR from the beauty and cosmetics business Coty (whose portfolio inc...

We review how Couche-Tard, which operates mainly under the Circle K banner globally, performed in the first quarter performance and the impact of COVID-19 across its development plans. Q1 headline numbers Total merchandise and service revenues increased 7.0% to $3.9bn Same-store merchandise revenues up 19.9% in Canada, 7.7% in the US and 3.4% in Europe Same-store road transportatio...