Walmart Aims to Healthify Its Food Lineup

Walmart pledged to build new stores in urban and rural underserved areas and reformulate thousands of packaged food items by 2015, removing industrially produced trans fats, cutting sodium by 25 percent, dropping added sugars by 10 percent, and developing new labeling that'll call attention to whole-grain and unsweetened food options. It also plans to work with suppliers to lower prices on fresh produce at a rate that will save customers $1 billion annually. 

Yum Sugar

Ahold's U.S. Grocery Store Sales Gain on Price Cuts, Promotions

Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch owner of Stop & Shop supermarkets, said fourth-quarter sales at its U.S. stores rose as the company lured customers with promotional offerings and lower prices and the dollar rose against the euro.  Revenue at U.S. supermarkets open at least a year, excluding gasoline sales, increased 0.9 percent from a year earlier.  Ahold is lowering costs to cut prices and increasing offerings to attract cash-strapped shoppers in the U.S., where the company gets about 60 percent of its revenue.

Bloomberg Business

Only A.J. Wright Store in NF to Become T.J. Maxx

An A.J. Wright store in Niagara Falls that is closing will reopen as a T.J.Maxx this spring.  It was known last month that the Niagara Falls store, located in Niagara Consumer Square, was the only one of the five A.J. Wright stores in the  Buffalo area that would reopen. But the company had not said which banner the location would switch to.  All A.J. Wright stores are in the midst of closing sales, which are expected to be finished by mid February.

Buffalo News

Retailers Planning to Add Stores, Invest in Their Businesses, in 2011

Retailers are in the mood to grow in 2011, and are planning to open stores and invest in new technology this year, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation and audit firm KPMG LLP.  Forty-one percent of 318 retail executives surveyed said they plan to increase their U.S. store base in 2011, up from 25 percent a year ago. Of the retailers surveyed this year, 25 percent plan to expand overseas as well.

North Jersey
 

Chile SMU Group Purchases Alvi Supermarket Chain, Enters Peru

Chile's SMU Group, which owns the Supermercados Unimarc SA supermarket chain, purchased rival Alvi Supermercados Mayoristas SA and with it entered the Peruvian market.  The Alvi supermarket chain has 11 stores in Peru and 29 in Chile, of which 17 are located in metropolitan Santiago. SMU Group purchased a 35% interest in Alvi for 30 billion Chilean pesos ($60.9 million) from Wal-Mart Stores Inc's Chilean unit.

Wall Street Journal

Carrefour Sold in Romania Worth 1.13 Billion Euro Last Year

Carrefour sales in Romania dropped last year by 0.4% to 1.l3 billion euro, but they were influenced positively by the expansion of operations. In the fourth quarter, sales went up by 0.2% to 327 million euro. In comparable terms, sales went down last year by 5% while the decline of the last quarter was of 4.3%.  Calculated at a constant exchange rate, the drop in sales was of 0.9% as a whole, but in the fourth quarter there was an increase of 0.9%.

Act Media

Delhaize Group Says Fourth-Quarter Sales Climb 7.6% on Growth in Belgium

Delhaize Group SA, the owner of the U.S. Food Lion supermarkets, posted a 7.6% increase in fourth- quarter revenue as growth in Belgium accelerated.  Fourth-quarter revenue rose to 5.24 billion euros ($7 billion) from 4.87 billion euros a year earlier, the Brussels- based company said today in a statement.  Revenue in the U.S. was little changed at $4.72 billion and climbed 9.5 percent after translation into euros. 

Bloomberg

Future Group to Focus On Wholesale Rural Outlets

The Future Group, India's largest retailer, is reportedly planning a major push into the country's rural markets, and will look to open wholesale outlets. According to the Livemint daily, the group plans to open 50 wholesale outlets in rural markets over the next years. It will also reportedly look to sign up 20,000 franchise outlets in villages, which will then be serviced by the wholesale store.  

Kam City