Company and Personal News
Walmart uses game app in training
From February Walmart uses a simulation game app called Spark City to train newly recruited store staff. Workers have to manage the dry goods section of the store in real...
Read more
Amazon delivers with robots
In Snohomish (Washington) Amazon has started using robots to deliver products to customers’ homes. Six Scout robots do the job every day, from Monday to Friday. Shoppers can ask for...
Read more
Tesco and Jamie Oliver teach community kitchen cooks
Tesco and Jamie Oliver have joined forces to teach more than 1,000 cooks at community kitchens to bring the most out of the food donations that they receive. In the...
Read more
JD.com: drone delivery in Indonesia
JD.com has used a drone to deliver products outside of China: in January a box of books and backpacks were delivered to a distance bigger than 250km. JD.com has been...
Read more
Lush Naked – no-plastic store
In 2018 Lush opened its first ‘Naked’ stores in Milan and Berlin: in these shops products are sold without a plastic packaging. As the next step Lush opened a similar...
Read more
Brexit: Tesco finally in talks about storing more goods
Tesco has finally announced plans to stat storing more goods as the March deadline for Brexit is approaching. The UK’s biggest supermarket chain is currently in talks with suppliers about...
Read more
Amazon for Teens
E-commerce giant Amazon has launched services that are directly available to 13-17 year old consumers. The teenagers can browse, read recommendations and place orders on the platform, but their purchases...
Read more
REWE: no more organic cucumber in plastic shrink-wrap
At the Internationale Grüne Woche in Berlin REWE announced that they would stop selling organic cucumbers in plastic shrink-wrap in Rewe and Penny stores. Earlier the retailer already banned plastic...
Read more
Pernod Ricard buys stake in African online retailer
French company Pernod Ricard has announced that they acquired a strategic share in Africa’s leading online retailer, Jumia. The two companies wish to develop an innovative distribution strategy in the...
Read more
Glatz acquires Márker Distribution
Austrian company Glatz GmbH – the owner of Glatz Hungary Kft. – has bought Márker Distribution Kft. This means that in addition to Filippo Berio olive oils, Kronen corn germ...
Read more
Lidl invests 1 million euros in solar energy in Ireland
Until the end of 2019 Lidl is investing EUR 1 million in the installation of solar panels at eight stores. The announcement came after the group’s store in Nenagh switched...
Read more
New Nestlé coffee factory in Egypt
Nestlé opened a new 12,740m² Bonjorno coffee production plant in Egypt. There are 240 people working in the factory, which was built from CHF 13.9 million. It was in January...
Read more
Colruyt Group tests smart lockers for parcel delivery
Belgian retailer Colruyt Group is testing smart lockers for parcel delivery in 6 stores, which are called Bringme Box. The lockers – developed by intelligent logistics solutions provider Bringme –...
Read more
Amazon sends free samples
As part of Amazon Sampling, the online retailer sends free samples of new and established brands’ products to shoppers. It is Amazon that selects the customers who receive the free...
Read more
Starbucks: 10 new cafés instead of the planned 1,000
Instead of the formerly planned 1,000 new units, Starbucks has decided to launch between just 6 and 10 new cafés. The decision comes as the competition for a cup of...
Read more
Lidl: less salt, sugar and fat in private label products
Lidl had made a pledge already in January 2017 to optimise the composition of several private label products: they cut the sugar content of Crownfield breakfast cereals by 35 percent;...
Read more
Taco Bell tests a vegetarian menu
Taco Bell is testing a vegetarian menu that combines the chain’s old and new vegetarian offerings. With this step Taco Bell is trying to reach out to younger consumers who...
Read more
Zewa Project reloaded
In the Zewa Designer Competition 16 in-store display designs, created by students of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, were competing. The brand celebrated the winners with a press...
Read more
Turkey: EBRD loan for developing Migros
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced granting an EUR 60-million loan for modernising Migros stores in Turkey. Not only stores will be revamped from this sum,...
Read more
Lidl-Müller partnership in the United Kingdom
Lidl’s strategy heavily builds on British farmers, so two thirds of their products in UK stores come from local suppliers. Last year Lidl entered into a partnership with Müller Milk&Ingredients:...
Read more
Unilever buys ‘Vegetarian Butcher’
Unilever has acquired Dutch ‘vegetarian butcher’ company De Vegatarische Slager. The Utrecht-based ambitious manufacturer of meat substitutes established 4,000 points of sale in 17 countries in 11 years. Their products...
Read more
Continente launches electronic invoice in Portugal
Continente is the first food retailer in Portugal to have introduced e-invoicing: by using this service shoppers receive invoices via e-mail in real time, at the time of purchase. The...
Read more
Walmart tests self-driving cars
Walmart plans to speed up the home delivery of FMCG products by using self-driving cars – the model is being tested in Arizona, in cooperation with Udelv. In the current...
Read more
Alibaba buys Berlin-based company data Artisans
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group paid USD 103.3 million for data processing and streaming company data Artisans, which has customers such as Uber, Lyft, eBay, Comcast, a Huawei and Kin....
Read more
Two from three British shoppers chose Aldi or Lidl at Christmas
Two thirds of British households bought food and drinks in an Aldi or Lidl store before Christmas. According to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel, almost all retail chains saw...
Read more
Carrefour: new store format in Italy and Belgium
In Portogruaro Carrefour Italia debuts with a new hypermarket that aims at making shopping simpler: they sell organic fruits and vegetables supplied by local farmers, ready meals to go, there...
Read more
British Co-op to open 100 new stores in 2019
Co-op is investing GBP 200 million in opening 100 new stores in the United Kingdom in 2019. The development programme will create 1,500 new jobs. These shops will open at...
Read more
Leclerc and Carrefour: new pick-up locations for pedestrians
‘E.Leclerc Relais’ is the name of Leclerc’s latest, 7th pick-up location for pedestrians in Paris, which opened on 9 January. Carrefour has also announced that before the end of January...
Read more
Tesco uses robots for home delivery
Teaming up with Starship Technologies, Tesco started using robots for home delivery in the United Kingdom: from a Tesco Extra store 1,000 products can be ordered, which are delivered in...
Read more
Alibaba to build a trade hub in Belgium
Alibaba, the biggest Chinese online retailer is to build its own 220,000m² base in Belgium, close to the Liége airport – reported Handelsblatt. The company will invest at least EUR...
Read more
