Retail and consumer goods industry news

India's Future Retail, formerly known as Pantaloon Retail, plans to expand its convenience format portfolio to more than 1,000 stores in the next two years. 1,000 KB's Faiprice stores by 2015 Future Retail currently operates around 200 franchised convenience stores in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai under the KB's Fairprice banner. Store numbers in these cities will increase rapidly, reac...

Target is establishing a Technology Innovation Centre in San Francisco which will be used to drive its developments in e-commerce, particularly mobile commerce, online search and social media. Developers attracted by Target’s scale The new unit mirrors Walmart’s initiative in establishing @WalmartLabs in the area over two years ago. To date, around 20 people have been recruited into the te...

Aldi Nord has announced that its refurbishment programme is proving successful, and that the business has exceeded all expectations so far this year. Refurbishments on track Aldi Nord's modernization process is on schedule, with 4,300 of its stores extended or refurbished since the programme begun almost two years ago, reports Lebensmittel Zeitung. The discounter has stated that stores ...

Morrisons and Ocado have today announced an agreement that will enable Morrisons to move into the online grocery market by January 2014. An important step forward for both parties The deal should bring new growth for both retailers, and helps answer the question that Morrisons has been considering for some time; namely whether and how to take its offer online . Deliveries will be made f...

IGD's latest convenience research shows the UK convenience market is now worth £35.6bn, with this set to increase to £46.2bn by 2018. .style1 { border-width: 0px; }.style2 { text-align: center; } Convenience market worth £35.6bn The latest view of the convenience market values the sector at £35.6 billion, up 4.9% on the previous year. Store numbers for multiples, symbols, and co-operat...

Grocery eCommerce continues to develop in France, with Intermarche testing a dedicated dark store facility and Leclerc rolling out a price comparison site for Drive. We are tracking developments in Click and Collect for grocery, or Drive, and you can view our latest presentation here . Web comparison delivers significant price transparency Leclerc has expertise in price comparison and has been...

Walmart's total net sales for the first quarter increased by 1.0% to $113.4bn, with growth led by its international division, where sales increased by 2.9%. In the US, Sam's Club delivered a 0.5% increase in sales (ex-fuel), while at its core US stores operation sales grew 0.3%.  Comp store sales at its US stores declined by 1.4% (ex-fuel). Operating income over the period increased by...

Leading retail buying consortium for the independent sector, Nisa Retail has announced the appointment of Ian Bishop to the newly created role of marketing director, as the group seeks to bring focus to the development of Nisa as a consumer brand. Commenting on the appointment Neil Turton, Nisa CEO said: "The newly created role of marketing director represents a significant milestone in Ni...

Leading Chinese grocery retailer Sun Art reports revenue growth of 12.9% to RMB 25.4bn (USD 4.1bn) and net profit growth of 16% to RMB 1.06bn (USD 17m) in the first quarter of the year. Performance on track for the year Sun Art is a joint venture between French retailer Auchan and the Taiwanese Ruentex Group and operates hypermarkets under both Auchan and RT Mart banners. Same store sales o...

Over 300 delegates attended the Symbol Conference this year to hear briefings from Nisa, SPAR UK, Premier and Costcutter. We've summarised some of the key take outs from the day here. On the look out for value IGD's latest ShopperVista research demonstrates the challenges facing British customers, highlighting 76% of those shoppers interviewed are still concerned about the cost of livin...