Retail and consumer goods industry news

South Africa-based Pick n Pay have announced that Richard Brasher will retire from his role as chief executive from 21 April 2021. The retailer said that Brasher will be succeeded as CEO by Pieter Boone, who was formerly the chief operating officer of Metro AG. Brasher to leave Pick n Pay in stronger position than when he arrived Brasher leaves after eight years as chief executive of Pick n...

Barilla announced it has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Pasta Evangelists, a specialist in D2C fresh pasta and sauces. International growth Pasta Evangelists launched in 2016. The company delivers boxes of fresh pasta and sauces to customers across the UK who are then able to prepare pasta dishes in five minutes. In addition to its core on-demand offer, Pasta Evangelists retail offer...

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development and evolution of retailers across the world. For the discount channel, one of the biggest changes in 2020 has been the acceleration of developing online services, to catch up with other non-discounter competitors and meet shoppers’ expectations. With profitability being at the heart of the discount model and a key measure of success, the ...

Having entered in preliminary discussions around a potential transaction, these have now ended, with Carrefour and Couche-Tard switching their focus to explore opportunities for operational partnerships. Opposition to any deal The discussions had been initiated by Couche-Tard’s “friendly approach” to Carrefour with the objective of acquiring the France-based retailer. However, these d...

Reliance Retail will depart from its previous strategy of directly selling packaged grocery products.  Instead, its e-commerce platform JioMart will soon use Kirana stores as franchise partners to deliver non-perishable grocery items in India.  Kiranas will be leveraged for non-perishable items; Reliance Retail will fulfill perishable goods JioMart will utilise the existing inventory of the...

Marc Lore, president and CEO, Walmart US ecommerce, is leaving the business at the end of January. He will remain as a strategic advisor to the retailer until the end of September. Transformed Walmart’s ecommerce operations Lore joined Walmart in 2016 as part of the acquisition of Jet.com, the ecommerce business he founded. In addition to being able to optimise the capabilities of Jet.com, ...

In our recent Western European outlook 2021 article, we highlighted ‘Stepping up on sustainability’ as one of five trends that we expect to shape grocery retail in 2021. This is especially the case in the Nordics, where sustainability remains at the heart of retailer strategies despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the World Economic Forum in Davos revealed the Global 100 Most Sustainable ...

Driving online profitability, creating safe shopping spaces, and bringing the out-of-home experience in-home are among the key trends expected to shape global retail in 2021, according to new predictions from IGD. Following a disruptive 2020, five trends stand out as areas for businesses to focus on this year: 1. System upgrade: digitally enhancing operations What we expect in 2021: ...

We take a detailed look at the new restrictions on alcohol promotions in Irish supermarkets that came into force this week. Reducing alcohol consumption by reducing promotional activity There are three new measures that will have an impact of grocery retailers; Retailers are banned from selling alcohol at a reduced price on the basis of the purchase of another product or service. This...

Couche-Tard, which operates the Circle K brand globally, has launched a live retail lab store in Montreal featuring an autonomous shopping experience, in partnership with McGill University. Autonomous store experience The lab store has been launched to enable the testing of innovative and frictionless technologies in a live environment. Located on McGill University’s downtown campus in the ...