News and articles
Ahold Delhaize opens AIR Lab in Delft
Ahold Delhaize organised a three-day inaugural event for its AI for Retail (AIR) Lab in Delft in the Netherlands. The lab is an extension of the company’s AIR Lab in...
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Metro invests in Swedish company Matsmart
Metro AG has announced that its investment fund LeadX Capital Partners invested in Matsmart, a Swedish online business specialising in food waste reduction. Matsmart buys surplus production and overstocks from companies...
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Conad Centro Sud formed with the merger of cooperatives
Conad PAC 2000A and Conad Sicilia have agreed to merge to form Conad Centro Sud, a group with a total turnover of EUR 4.5 billion and a market share of...
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Sainsbury’s to sell 100-percent free-range eggs only from April 2020
UK retailer Sainsbury’s has announced that it will only sell eggs sourced from free-range farms as of April 2020. The decision to switch to 100-percent free-range eggs will help in...
Read moreTesco plans to hire 9,000 extra workers for the Christmas period
Tesco announced in August that it would make 4,500 people redundant, but now the company says it will recruit 9,000 extra staff for the Christmas period. The seasonal customer service...
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Lidl offers medical benefits for part-time workers too
Lidl US is going to invest up to USD 9 million in order to provide medical benefits for all of its part-time workers. The company announced that from 1 January...
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Debenhams introduces autism- friendly shopping
Debenhams has started a new campaign with the National Autistic Society, to encourage other retailers and businesses to hold autism hours. On 8 October, between 11:00 and 12:00, the department...
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Croatian food company Fortenova starts to sell non-core businesses
Croatian food group Fortenova Grupa, formerly known as Agrokor, puts four units – including two tourism agencies, Atlas and Kompas – up for sale as it starts to get rid of non-core...
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Kroger and Walgreens stop selling e-cigarettes
Kroger Co and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc have announced they stop selling e-cigarettes at their stores, as there is heightened regulatory scrutiny of the product, following reports of lung disease...
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Gousto to create 700 new jobs in the UK in 3 years
British online recipe box company Gousto will add more than 700 jobs over the next 3 years, as there is growing demand for food services that send precise ingredients for recipes directly...
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New beauty concept by Carrefour
Carrefour has opened the first in its new chain of beauty stores, Sources. The new store is located in Le Marais, Paris. To support the new concept, the retailer has...
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Walmart’s Sam’s Club offers healthcare services
The Sam’s Club business line of Walmart has teamed up with Huma and 98point6 to launch the ‘Care Accelerator’ programme, which offers a series of healthcare plans to members. The...
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Walgreens starts on-demand delivery service
Walgreens has joined forces with delivery company Postmates, to launch a new on-demand delivery service to shoppers in New York. Orders can be placed via the Postmates website or mobile...
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FrieslandCampina and United Dairymen of Arizona enter into partnership
FrieslandCampina has announced a partnership with American dairy cooperative United Dairymen of Arizona (UDA). With this step the objective is to increase the production of lactoferrin, a special ingredient required...
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Edeka’s first organic supermarket opens in Hamburg
German retailer Edeka has launched its first organic supermarket in Hamburg-Altona, under the name Naturkind. The supermarket offers a selection of fresh regional and seasonal organic food items. The store...
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Spar opens its 150th Express store in Utrecht
Spar Netherlands has opened its 150th Express store in Eemnes, in the province of Utrecht. The new store caters to the immediate or daily shopping needs of modern consumers in...
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Lidl launches online shopping in Slovakia
Slovakia has become the latest country where Lidl has launched an online store, but currently the site is non-food only. Lidl has been continuously accelerating its e-commerce developments. Since the...
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Aldi plans to expand in Italy and Switzerland
Until 2020 Aldi Süd plans to open 80 new stores in Italy, 600-800m² shops with dedicated sections for fruit and vegetable, wine, food and baked goods. In Switzerland the retailer...
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Italy’s illycaffè wants to conquer the USA
Illycaffè currently operates 23 units in North America and in the next 5 years they intend to open 200 new cafés in the USA. For illycaffè the US market accounts...
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Kroger opens its first ‘food hall’ concept store
Kroger has opened a 4,800m² store in the centre of Cincinnati, which features a 650m² dedicated food hall on the 2nd floor, seating up to 200 guests. By offering a...
Read moreTesco tests checkout-free shopping
Tesco has invested in Trigo Vision a checkout-free start-up company, to test cashierless technology at its Tesco Express store. Trigo Vision’s technology will make it possible for Tesco app users to...
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Green light for the merger of Extreme Digital and eMAG
On 17 October 2019 the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) approved of the merger of Extreme Digital Zrt. and eMAG (the Hungarian affiliate of eMAG that forms part of the South...
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Everything, no matter from where
On 14 October Ecommerce Hungary organised a conference on mobile apps. Because of the digitalisation and mobile first trends, today’s shopping habits are characterised by the ‘buying everything, no matter...
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E-commerce is growing fast
GfK has done a major online survey on the digital consumption habits of Hungarians in 2019. The answers given in the 1,500-respodent study have revealed that the number of regular...
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Hungarian businesses have discovered online marketplaces
GKI Digital’s estimation is that there are more than 4,500 enterprises in Hungary (mainly SMEs) that have some kind of connection with selling at online marketplaces. Net sales by these...
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Unilever makes more pledges
Unilever has made a pledge to halve its ‘virgin’ plastic (that is non-recycled plastic) use by 2025. To this end the company will utilise more than 100,000 tons less plastic...
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Magyarvíz takes steps to protect the environment
Lajosmizse-based Magyarvíz Kft. is one of the biggest players in the Hungarian mineral water market. The company has reduced the weight of PET bottles, so in comparison with 2017, 10-12...
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Smart malls are coming
Between 2019 and 2020 about 4.4 million square metres of new mall floor space will be created in Central and Eastern Europe, which will answer the challenges of retail in...
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Gluten-free and vegan products available in OMV VIVA shops
From October seven new private label, additive-free snacks can be found on the shelves of OMV VIVA filling station shops. The four snack mixes are made from organic ingredients only,...
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