Retail and consumer goods industry news

Lee Seung-han will retire from his position in May following 16 years leading Homeplus in South Korea. CEO of Malaysia to take the reigns Lee's continuous service with Tesco since it entered the market in 1999 has contributed to the retailer's positive growth trajectory. Whilst Tesco's recent performance has been tested by challenging trading conditions following legislative changes, South ...

CVS pharmacy, one of America's largest drugstore chains, has announced the relaunch of its private label food brand. Improvements all round CVS pharmacy has relaunched its Gold Emblem range of private label products.  The range comprises around 250 products across a number of food categories, including snacks, desserts, beverages, confectionery, juices and breakfast bars.  The new i...

Waitrose will launch a new drive-through click and collect service as  part of a wider multimillion pound investment in its multichannel operations. Complementing existing services Waitrose will open its first drive-through collection point in Cheltenham in March, followed by drive-throughs in Southend, Salisbury, Wolverhampton and Lincoln. Shoppers will be able to pick up online orders ...

German discount chain Lidl is planning to extend its executive board with two new additions from its Central Europe teams. New appointments from within Lidl team Two major changes will take place with the Lidl board, subject to consent from supervisory bodies expected in April. The first will see Bojan Luncer, who joined Lidl Croatia in 2002, become responsible for multiple country oper...

Kaiser's Tengelmann is to modernise or rebuild around 50 stores in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany this year, according to trade press reports. Aim is to increase revenue contribution North Rhine-Westphalia is Tengelmann's third-largest region in terms of store numbers, after Berlin and Munich; it operates around 160 supermarkets there.  However, according to Lebensmittel Ze...

Spain's Condis Supermercats has reported a 0.6% fall in 2012 sales, to €801m.  High levels of investment in 2012 The supermarket chain, based in Cataluña, ended the year with 409 stores, up 15 on 2011, and over 180,000 sq m of sales area.  Levels of investment were higher in 2012 than previously.  A total of €25m was spent; €17m of which was on new store openings and remodellings, in line ...

Loblaw has reported that total sales, for the full year to December 29, 2012, increased by 1.1% to $31.6bn, with net earnings down 15.5% to $650m. Retail sales increased by 0.8% to $31.0bn, with same store sales down 0.2%. Retail operating income fell by 16.1% to $1,101m. Improving trends provide confidence on strategy Although the retailer only delivered marginal sales growth, and operating...

DIA has reported net sales growth of 4.1% for 2012 (+5.2% excluding currency effect), and adjusted EBITDA growth of 8.6% (+9.4% ex. currency effect) Tough comparatives in Q4 Net sales growth in the fourth quarter was 2.4% (+4.4% ex. currency effect).  A tough comparison in Q4 2011, weak business conditions in Turkey and depreciation in the Brazilian and Argentine currencies meant a lower...

Casino has reported a 29.3% increase in trading profit, reflecting the move to take control of GPA in Brazil in 2012. In France, trading profit declined by 8.6%, with a drop in domestic trading margin. However, overall trading margin was up and the group is confident its domestic 'back to basics' commercial plan will kick in and management stressed that its small format exposure lies in its favou...

Walmart's full year results, for the year to January 31, 2013, have revealed consolidated net sales growth of 5.0% for the full fiscal year 2013, to $466.1bn. Operating income increased by 4.7%, with income from continuing operations attributable to Walmart increasing by 7.8% to $15.8bn. The retailer made progress towards its five-year goal of reducing operating expenses as a percentage of s...