Retail and consumer goods industry news

The first CU convenience store has opened in Malaysia. South Korean retailer, BGF Retail signed a brand licensing deal with MyNews in October last year. Located in Centrepoint Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur Source: CU Malaysia South Korean products account for 60% of all products Source: CU Malaysia The 165 sq m store sells popular Korean street food over t...

Hindustan Unilever’s rural distribution network, composed of Indian women micro-entrepreneurs, has become a lifeline during the pandemic.  The project has given them a source of income, while distributing Unilever’s products directly to rural consumers, without the need for a physical store. 140,000 female entrepreneurs across 18 states benefit from this project In the early 2000s, HUL starte...

Reliance Retail has announced that it is extending the date to complete the purchase of Future Retail.  While waiting for the merger to be approved by the authorities, Reliance Retail is focusing more on growing its private label brands, while Future Retail has enhanced its digital capability with a two-hour delivery guarantee for online shoppers of Big Bazaar. Potential acquisition of Future R...

Sobeys has launched a grocery pickup service, Voilà by Safeway Curbside Pickup, at Safeway locations in Calgary and Edmonton. This will be expanded to other locations in Alberta over the next few months and builds on the launch of a similar service in Nova Scotia. Builds on launch of first CFC The launch of this service builds on the strategic partnership between Sobeys and Ocado which saw ...

Magnit is in the middle of a business transformation programme. It is implementing six strategies to turn around its business and as it looks to support its dynamic growth strategy, and compete with other leading retailers in Russia. Since 2018 the retailer has reported an improving sales performance with a sales CAGR of 11.4% between 2018 and 2020, when compared to a 6.7% rate for the p...

We look at the leading US beauty retailer’s performance in 2020, highlight its strategy to win in 2021 and its leadership changes. 2020 was a challenging year for Ulta Beauty Total sales declined by 16.8% to US$6.2 bn (2019: US$7.4 bn) for the year ending 30 January 2021 due to the impact of COVID-19 Comparable sales decreased by 17.9% , versus an increase of 5% in 2019 By the...

Mexico-based Jüsto (Spanish for fair) is a pureplay grocer. It is committed to offering customers fresh, and high-quality produce and meat at fair prices. It achieves this by working directly with suppliers and managing the complete end-to-end supply chain, without using intermediaries. This shortens the supply chain, meaning perishables do not spend lengthy times on shelves, losing freshness....

China’s two ecommerce giants, Alibaba and Tencent, are collaborating for the first time, which will see Alibaba’s bargain online shopping platform Taobao Deals offered as a mini-program on Tencent’s multipurpose super app WeChat A move prompted by the China’s anti-trust regulators The collaboration means that users of Taobao Deals can now pay via WeChat Pay. Alibaba has long barred the u...

Following a strong first quarter, with sales up 22% and operating income up 35% year-on-year, McCormick has increased its sales outlook to expected growth of 8-10%. The strong performance reflects its efforts to capitalise on four accelerating consumer trends which the company expects to persist beyond the pandemic. 1. A continued sustained consumer preference for cooking more at home, includi...

Pinduoduo, China’s latest tech behemoth, has become the world’s largest ecommerce platform by user numbers, surpassing Alibaba. It has set its next goal to be " the world’s largest agriculture and grocery platform ". Here is what you need to know about the company. Pinduoduo surpasses Alibaba and JD.com in user numbers The Nasdaq-listed company said it had 788.4 million annual active buye...