Family Dollar Sales Up, Guides High

Family Dollar Stores Inc. recently posted healthy sales results for the second quarter ended February 26, 2011. The company's comparable-store sales rose 5.1% for the second quarter of 2011, with net sales rising to $2.26 billion compared with $2.09 billion delivered in the prior-year quarter. The company opened 146 new stores compared with 86 store openings during the same period last year. Family Dollar also refurbished 313 stores and aims to achieve its target of 800 store reformations in fiscal 2011.   

Zacks

LL Bean Reverses 2 Years of Sales Declines

After two consecutive years of declines, outdoors and clothing retailer L.L. Bean finished 2010 with a 5.7 percent increase in sales, indicating skittish customers are feeling better about opening their wallets.  Revenue for the privately held Freeport, Maine-based company came in at $1.44 billion for the fiscal year that ended Feb. 27. After declines of 6.6 percent in 2009 and 7.8 percent in 2008, the company appears to be bouncing back from its worst revenue decline in decades.

CNBC

Supervalu Sees 'Momentum' With C&K Signing

The switch by Oregon-based C&K Market to Supervalu here as the major supplier for its 62 Oregon and Northern California stores "should definitely add momentum" to Supervalu's efforts to add new customers on the West Coast. C&K will begin the transition from Unified to Supervalu early next month, with the process expected to be completed over the subsequent three weeks. C&K is the company's first full-line grocery account on the West Coast since Supervalu picked up a warehouse just outside Portland, Ore.

Supermarket News

Delhaize Converting 15 Stores

Delhaize America is changing 15 of its Bloom bannered stores in the Charlotte, N.C., and Greenville, S.C., areas into Food Lion stores. The Salisbury, N.C.-based company, a subsidiary of the Belgian retail conglomerate Delhaize Group, additionally plans to close a Bloom location on Holland Road in Mauldin, S.C., by the end of next month. Operating under the Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Food Lion, Harveys, Hannaford, Reid's and Sweetbay Supermarket banners, Delhaize America has more than 1,600 stores in 16 states in the eastern United States.

Progressive Grocer

Walmart Speeding Up Shopping with New Pick Up Service

If you know what you need at Walmart, but don't have time to navigate the store, you may soon be in luck. Walmart is starting a new service for the busy consumer. It's called "pick-up today" and will start this month. It allows customers to order items online at walmart.com. In four hours, the order will be ready for pick-up at the nearest store. The service will be available by June at 36-hundred stores nationwide. It covers about 40,000 items, including baby products, toys, furniture, electronics and appliances.

KTKA

NTUC FairPrice to Open More Hypermarkets

NTUC FairPrice has said it will expand its hypermarket chain, as it looks to reach a wider range of customers. The chain launched its fourth such outlet in Serangoon today, and said it will open two more by 2013. It added that it aims to have at least one hypermarket in the North, South, East and West heartland areas of Singapore. FairPrice stressed that the hypermarkets will help to keep food items down, adding, "The format has helped to contribute to the economies of scale ... we are able to negotiate for better prices".

Kam City

Private Equity Picks Up Vishal Retail

Private equity firm TPG and local conglomerate Shriram Group have acquired bankrupt discount retailer Vishal Retail, in a deal worth Rs.700m (€11m). The firm's wholesale and franchise businesses were acquired by TPG Wholesale, the Indian unit of the US firm; while the retail division was sold to Airplaza Retail Holdings, owned by the Shriram Group. The sale marks the end of a long road for the retailer, which defaulted on its loans in late 2009, after having expanded across India at a rapid pace.

Kam City