Retail and consumer goods industry news

Speaking at the World Retail Congress in Singapore this week, Tesco CEO Philip Clarke announced that Tesco is to launch a paperless Clubcard in China later this year. Shift from postal to electronic communication China will be the first country in which Tesco will launch a fully digital Clubcard. The move will see an end to the retailer's postal mailings, with vouchers and loyalty i...

The Co-operative Group has announced sales rose 1.5% to £13.5bn at group level, with sales at its food business up 1.3% to £7.44bn, but down 0.7% on a like for like basis in the 53 weeks ending 5th January 2013. Convenience outperforms  In contrast to the overall food business, sales at the retailer's convenience stores were up 1.9% on a LFL basis, with sales increasing 5.5% over the thre...

Spain's leading grocery retailer, Mercadona, continues to produce enviable results with turnover growth above 5% for the last three years.  Its president, Juan Roig, has been voted third in a list of Spain's most influential businessmen.* We look at Mercadona's success in the past year and its priorities for 2013. 2012: "focus on what we do best: be shopkeepers" In his message at the fron...

Norwegian retail group Norgesgruppen has reported strong revenue growth of 5.9% in 2012, rising to NOK62.1bn, and continues to grow its market share. Positive performance across the group Operating profit was healthy at NOK2.6bn, up 4.6% on 2011. Growth was driven by the Kiwi discount stores and its convenience banners including Joker and Spar. Meny stores also performed well, although not a...

Asda is reaffirming its commitment to low prices in a new advert supporting its Price Lock promotion, released to coincide with the Budget. Price Lock commitment The Price Lock promotion is being run by Asda on a range of basic products such as bread and milk. It promises to keep the price of such products consistently low for a minimum of 12 weeks, where it claims that the prices of i...

Greggs has released its preliminary results showing like-for-like sales were down 2.7% for the 52 weeks ending 29th December 2012. New stores boosting growth Although Greggs has reported a decrease in like-for-like sales, the chain has reported total sales increased by 4.8%, which is being credited to the strong performance of the 100 new shops which opened during the year. The back drop o...

A company spokesperson has reaffirmed the importance of the Italian market to Carrefour, denying rumours circulating yesterday that Carrefour was planning to sell its Italian business. Conad was rumoured to be interested The report originated from an Italian daily newspaper, and said Italian retailer Conad may be interested in acquiring the business, either alone or with other partners....

Metro Group's full year results conference today confirmed previously released figures for 2012, and gave a cautious but optimistic outlook for the year ahead. Modest growth in 2012 Metro confirmed that total group revenues rose a modest 1.2%, reaching €66.7bn for the full year 2012. Operating profit fell by 16.7% to €1.98bn, in line with its revised guidance. Performance was mixed between m...

Auchan has reported a 5.8% rise in revenue to €46,931m and a 6.9% increase in EBITDA to €2,540m. China, Russia and online stand out as growth areas. Hypermarkets remain the mainstay of the business Hypermarkets remain the mainstay of Auchan's business, accounting for around 80% of group revenue. The majority of store growth is coming from Asia, with over 40 new stores opened in China over...

Norwegian retail group, Reitangruppen has reported stellar performance in 2012, increasing sales by NOK8bn to a total of NOK71.7bn. Solid performance across all divisions All four divisions of the group saw sales rise, with a strong performance at  discount banner Rema 1000. Sales rose 11.6% across Rema, with Denmark delivering the strongest performance, up by 19.5% year on year. CEO of ...