Supermarket News's Top 75 Retailers for 2011

Sales among the Top 75 food retailers in North America recovered from a slump in 2009, rising 7.7% during 2010. Total revenues, encompassing sales of food and nonfood merchandise, totaled $960.3 billion last year.  Revenues among the 10 largest companies on the list rose 2.2% to $666.1 billion in 2010.  Some top retailers include: Wal-Mart Stores (1), Costco Wholesale Corp. (3), Safeway (4), Publix Super Markets (7), Dollar General Corp. (15), Whole Foods Market (19), and Hy-Vee Food Stores (25). 

Supermarket News

Hhgregg Announces Fiscal Third Quarter Operating Results

Hhgregg, Inc. reported net income of $26.9 million for the three months ended December 31, 2010 compared with net income of $22.7 million for the comparable prior year period. The 18.4% and 15.2% increase in net income for the three and nine month periods ended December 31, 2010, respectively, was the result of an increase in net sales due to the net addition of 46 stores during the past 12 months.

4-Traders

Waitrose to Open First Store in Jersey

Supermarket chain Waitrose will step up its expansion by opening its first wholly-owned store outside Britain.  The 21,000 sq ft shop at St Saviour, Jersey is one of five branches set to open on the Channel Islands over the next two months.  Waitrose has 243 shops in Wales, England and Scotland recently opened three outlets in the Middle East.  The supermarket has had to convert and refit the Jersey store within two weeks of acquiring the keys.  It has also established new distribution channels and sourced 500 local products for the five shops from the islands.

Wales Online

Ikea Rival Plans Expansion in Canada

Jysk is a Danish retailing giant that boasts more than 1,700 stores in 34 countries worldwide, including outlets in such far-flung locations as Kazakhstan and Albania.  But, even though the chain has opened more than 40 stores across Canada since its arrival in 1996, most Canadians have likely never heard of them.  Jysk hopes to change that soon, with plans to open 20 new stores in Canada every year for the next three years. 

Edmonton

Wong Supermarkets to Open First Store Outside of Lima

The Wong group, owners of Peru's Wong supermarket chain, announced that they plan to open their first branch outside of Lima this year.  The size of this and subsequent Wong supermarkets in the provinces will most likely be smaller than those in Lima, proportional to the needs of each city.  "We are looking into possible cities for our first commercial center in the interior of the country. The first one will likely be in the north. We hope to begin construction this year and begin operations starting in 2012," according to the EW Corporation.  

Living in Peru

John Lewis to Expand into Europe

The John Lewis Partnership is poised to expand into the Continent, bolstering its website to attract international orders from up to 25 European countries.  The partnership's grocery arm, Waitrose, will open its first wholly owned store outside the UK with four further Channel Islands branches to open by the end of April.  Waitrose operates three Middle Eastern stores through a franchise partner, and aims to have 25 stores trading in the next five years.  Waitrose is set on doubling its UK market share, and is aggressively expanding its online capacity via Waitrose.com.

Financial Times

Sainsbury's Put Solar Panels in the Weekly Shop

Sainsbury's customers can now top up their weekly grocery shop with one-off purchases such as Solar Panels, to help them generate their own energy at home.  Sainsbury's Energy, in partnership with British Gas, will offer customers access to new energy technologies, energy deals, information, and energy saving advice in a place that's convenient for them with trained energy experts also available in selected stores.  

Easier Finance

Spar Launches Express Format in Zimbabwe

Spar International has opened two Express stores in Zimbabwe.  Spar already trades from over 70 outlets in Zimbabwe and has opened 12 new stores there in the last 18 months.  A further 10 will be opened by June 2011.  According to the retailer, the Express format has been developed as a result of research into consumer shopping behaviour and has involved input from international Spar partners and Spar's Zimbabwean retailers.

Retail Times