Tesco prepares for war
British grocery stocks continue to trade weakly on the London Stock Exchange after Asda announced it intends to cut prices across the board to attract more customers.
Food News
News articles from the FOOD research project.
Danes with international growth ambitions
Swedish ICA has shelved its international ambitions and will only concentrate on the domestic market for the near future. Danish Salling, on the other hand, is focusing both internationally and on the home market.
FOOD Conference 2025 a Great Success
The eighth edition of NHH's Food Conference was an absolute success. Nearly 250 delegates came to get the latest news about the grocery industry. They were served heavy business and academic material and probably went home loaded with innovative ideas, or at least with a broader understanding of the entire value chain.
Salling Group buys Rimi Baltic
Ica Group sells Rimi Baltic to the Danish Salling Group. ICA will use the capital injection to invest more in the Swedish market, the only market ICA are aiming at right now, according to CEO Nina Jönsson.
Danish grocery giant is marking European goods
The Danish retail giant, Salling Group, is now starting to mark its goods with the country of origin to make it easier for customers to choose European and explicitly not American goods.
New danish «closing law» creates uncertainty
Opening and closing times are hotly debated in retail – worldwide. We had loud discussions in Norway a few years ago, now it is Denmark's turn.
Axfood strengthened market positions
With a continued positive customer influx and increased volumes Axfood concludes a fourth quarter and year with strengthened market positions. Through the acquisition of City Gross from Bergendahls, a new and prominent position is taken within the hypermarket segment in Sweden.
Lidl is phasing out tobacco in Denmark
It is a trend across Europe, people drink less alcohol and smoke less. The health recommendations from authorities in all countries cracks down on smoking in all forms. Danish Lidl takes the consequences of the trend and phase out all sales of tobacco and nicotine products.
Danish Dagrofa invests 1.3 billion in the value chain
In the coming three years, Dagrofa, owned by NorgesGruppen (57,5%) and KFI (42,5%) will invest big in store openings, modernization of stores and automation. If they succeed the target is to improve bottom line with approximately 200 million DKK.
WalMart rush forward
By far the world's largest retailer, American Wal-Mart continues to grow fast, but without affecting the bottom line negatively. The company appears to be in complete control. Simply impressive.
Coop Sweden in deep crisis
Swedish Coop has struggled for several decades since peaking in the sixties and seventies. For a long time, they have had enormous values on the balance sheet, which has saved operations, after easing the balance year by year.
Salling opens an unattended store in Aarhus
The concept of unmanned, 24-hour stores has been discussed and evaluated in many markets in Norway and abroad. So far it hasn't taken off completely, far from it. Danish Salling Group is defying weak forecasts and is now opening its first self-service grocery store in Denmark.
Cross border trade continues to grow significantly
Many merchants and suppliers in Norway hoped that border residents would acquire new shopping habits after the covid pandemic, and shop more of their household budget at home and not travel so much to Sweden for cheaper food. Naturally, it didn't work out that way.
Ambitious Canadian try to buy Japanese Seven-Eleven
The founder of Couche-Tard, Alain Bouchard, has done what really should not be possible. From a single gas station in 1980 in Quebec Canada, he has built an international giant with more than 16,000 outlets in Canada, USA, and Europe. Now he hits at Japan.
No mercy for Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider
That the boardroom is a jungle, may be a cliché, but for Nestlé top, Mark Schneider, it became a reality last week. The board chose to replace him with veteran Laurent Freixe.
Simone Margulies new president and CEO of Axfood
In Sweden, the two most successful chains, ICA and Axfood, are now led by women. In Norway, we have no women at the CEO level, not in NorgesGruppen, not in Rema 1000 and not in Coop.
Rema 1000 Danish champion
Rema 1000 lost a lot of money in Poland, several tens of millions in Sweden, some claim 250 million NOK. In Denmark, on the other hand, things are going really well. Rema 1000 is now one of the leading grocery chains and probably the fastest growing.
Walmart shows strength in all sectors
Condemned and accused by many, the world's largest retailer and grocery player, Walmart Inc., presents first quarter results in 2025 with strong revenue and operating income growth – in the USA and internationally.
Basalt A Day fly
Denmark: Not everything Salling Group takes in turns into gold. The new concept BASALT was established extremely fast but disappeared almost as quickly.
All retail sectors are highly concentrated
This is claimed by Professor Frode Steen, who is currently particularly concerned with the grocery industry.
Historic agreement in Denmark
OK has entered into a historic agreement with Coop Danmark, whereby OK buys part of Coop Danmark. This partnership involves a capital injection of two billion DKK into Danish Coop.
Danish Dagrofa with historic results
Danish and half Norwegian-owned Dagrofa came out in 2023 with DKK 426 million in operating earnings, which is the best result for the food group in more than 20 years, many of them with solid deficits.
Russian oligarch runs thousands of supermarkets in Spain
The Spanish supermarket chain DIA is owned by the Russian billionaire and oligarch Mikhail Fridman. Despite recent EU sanctions, the supermarket chain is still unaffected by EU politics against Russian oligarchs and continues its operations in Spain, Argentina, and Brazil under the DIA brand.
Record sales of Finnish chocolate and liquorice
Many consumers have Finnish Fazer liquorice and candies as a favourite for their Saturday and Sunday cuddles. Turnover in the Finnish Fazer Group's confectionery branch landed at a record level in 2023, but operating profit is heavily burdened by divestments and write-downs in “green business areas”.
Still difficult for ICA
ICA, once the clear winner in the Swedish grocery market, is again losing market shares to Axfood. The relatively new CEO of ICA AB, Nina Jönsson, claims that things are getting better for ICA towards the end of 2023 after extensive measures, not least on the price and cost side.
Axfood takes market shares from ICA
With a surprisingly robust growth in the fourth quarter for both Willys and Hemköp, Axfood once again proved its ability to gain market share in Sweden, writes Kepler Cheuvreux Carnegie in an analysis. The investment bank repeats its “buy” recommendation and target price of SEK 330 for the Axfood share.
Border trade a mixed blessing
Norwegians' daytrips to shop across the border in Sweden continue to be at a lower level than before the pandemic. The trend through 2023 points towards a stabilization of cross-border trade in Sweden at a new and lower level, reports Norway's biggest bank DNB in a press release.
Carrefour is delisting Pepsico products over price hikes
French Carrefour have grown tired of what they believe to be unjustified price overcharging from PepsiCo and have stopped selling several products in a number of countries.
World champion in groceries
Lidl was one of the main sponsors of the World Handball Championship that France won against Norway last week. The sponsorship is matching because Lidl is the fastest growing grocery retailer in the world, a “world champion” in groceries according to many experts.
Insider trading damage ICA brand
16 of the 18 people who had been prosecuted for involvement in the ICA insider scandal were convicted of insider trading by the Stockholm District Court in December. One ICA retailer in southeastern Sweden has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison for aggravated insider trading – the hardest punishment for insider trading in Sweden ever.
Consumers prioritise animal welfare over lower climate footprint
Danish and international consumers prioritise better animal welfare over a smaller climate footprint if they must pay a higher price for their pork. This is shown by a new study from the University of Copenhagen, which has also examined consumer priorities in Germany, Great Britain, Shanghai and China.
Struggles in Norway, good in the home market
Five years ago, the English frozen food concept Iceland entered the Norwegian grocery market through a franchise agreement. Since 2018, Iceland Norway has suffered a total loss of over NOK 40 million for the Norwegian investors. The chain had at most six stores in Norway, but four were closed earlier this year, according to Dagens Næringsliv. Brexit is part of the problem.
LIDL: Big in UK – even bigger in London
Many analysts and experts laughed at Lidl when the German chain first established in Great Britain in 1994. Now the chain has a market share of 7.6 percent in GB and no less than 9.1 percent in London!
Canada's largest grocers commit to stabilizing prices
Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, has announced initial commitments from the country's top five grocery chains to stabilize food prices.
Raid against grocery suppliers in Sweden and Finland
In Sweden and Finland, the competition authorities have conducted a coordinated raid against several food suppliers. The companies are suspected of coordinating purchase and sale prices.
Nestlé Ranked Most Valuable Food Brand in The World
Nestlé is ranked the world’s most valuable food brand by Brand Finance, a consultancy. Coca-Cola is not surprisingly ranked as the most valuable non-alcoholic beverage brand.
Discounters are winning market shares
We see it all over Europe. Discounters take market shares from supermarkets. It happens in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and UK to name a few markets.
7-Eleven tests delivery robot in South Korea
Global convenience store giant 7-Eleven has begun a test run of a robot delivery service in South Korea in conjunction with Neubility, a South Korean startup.
The ICA brand weakens
Forget Volo, forget Coca-Cola, forget Ikea. Until less than a year ago, Sweden's strongest brand was ICA. Now it is history! How can such a strong brand break down in less than two years?
Lidl is targeting 300 stores in Sweden
Lidl tried to build a business in Norway from 2004 to 2008 but had to pull out with significant losses. In Sweden, on the other hand, which besides lower import tariffs, in many ways is not entirely unlike Norway, Europe's largest grocery chain is doing well.
Danish Salling Group criticizes Carlsberg
“It is not the supermarkets that have shovelled money into the inflationary year 2022,” emphasizes Salling Group's outgoing CEO, Per Bank. “Carlsberg earns 12 times more than grocery retailers in Denmark, it is not fair”, he stresses.
ICA's future report 2023: A new communication universe awaits
For the seventh year in a row, ICA publishes its future report – this year the focus is communication and marketing. The report examines AI (artificial intelligence), the emergence of new business models and what the future of sustainability work looks like.
Fulfilment costs: Will more retailers follow Tesco?
Tesco’s fresh request that its suppliers should contribute more towards the cost of fulfilling online orders could result in other retailers copying their move. It is obviously a development that the suppliers do not want, in Great Britain or other markets.
Danish Dagrofa in profit
Dagrofa makes progress in 2022 results despite difficult market conditions. The food service and logistics businesses pull up the overall result. CEO Tomas Pietrangeli has succeeded in stopping the losses in Dagrofa and has now delivered two years of profits.
Food 2023 Very Successful
The 200 participants who attended the NHH Food conference 13 March participated in a seminar full of professionalism and competence. NHH Food is now, arguably, the most important conference of the year - on the grocery market.
Norwegian grocery chains are efficient
Some quarters claim that competition in the grocery retail sector in Norway is too weak. There is no basis for such conclusions, according to the master students Adrian Jacobsen & Douglas Jansson at NHH. On the contrary, there is much evidence that Norwegian grocery retailers are the most efficient in Scandinavia.
Coop Denmark ends home deliveries
Danske Coop stop home deliveries due to lack of volumes and profit and terminates the leases on a number of warehouse buildings throughout the country.
A turbulent 2022 for ICA
"We are leaving a year that has been exceptionally turbulent. We had a lower result and margins than last year in ICA Sweden and in addition the profit sharing from the ICA stores is lower compared to 2021", comments CEO Nina Jönsson.
Global trends according to IGD
With inflation driving significant increases in production costs and retail prices across most major markets IGD emphasize that there will be a concentrated focus from retailers and suppliers on driving out costs and improving the efficiency of supply chains.
Best Christmas for Aldi in UK ever
In Denmark, Aldi is selling out to Norwegian Rema 1000 after losing millions and millions in the Danish grocery market over several decades. In the UK, Aldi has never done better with market share growth and increased profitability. The big difference is not entirely obvious.
Reitan Retail buys Aldi's stores in Denmark
German Aldi has never made money in Denmark. Amazingly Rema 1000 has made money from day one, since Odd Reitan opened the first Danish store in 1994. The success of Rema is one of the reasons why Aldi has sold most of its Danish stores to the Norwegians.
Axfood takes market shares
While ICA is losing market share, it seems that arch-competitor, Axfood, is gaining market share.
Challenging market situation for ICA
“Since late summer, the difficult economic situation has become obvious to all of us and higher costs greatly affect the behaviour of our customers who prioritize low price and increase the proportion of low-price products when shopping,” says Per Strömberg about the results in ICA for the third quarter.
Kroger buys Albertsons for 24,6 billion dollars
The buyout will form one of the world's absolute largest retail companies and number two in USA, only behind Walmart.
Danish Salling Group invests in solar systems worth billions
The goal is for solar energy to cover at least 25 percent of Salling Group's energy consumption in 2028.
Nina Jönsson new CEO in ICA
Per Strömberg has chosen to leave ICA Gruppen, where he has served as CEO since 2012. The Board of Directors has appointed Nina Jönsson as the new CEO. She is currently CEO of Plantagen, a garden chain.
Kroger is tightening the reins on the unvaccinated
Maybe the American grocery chain Kroger should be a role model for other retail chains in the world? Maybe for many authorities too? It is not a human right not to be vaccinated, but a duty to take the immunisation, Kroger has decided.
Nestlé sells part of L'Oreal
The world's largest food and beverage producer, Nestlé, is selling parts of its equity portfolio in L'Oreal, a world-renowned manufacturer and marketer of beauty products.
Carrefour Opens New Scan-Free Convenience Store
The world's second largest grocery chain and founder of the format hypermarkets, French Carrefour, recently opened its new “Flash store” in Paris.
Ica closes the door
The Swedish grocery giant, ICA, no longer wants to be in the stock market's open spotlight, but wish to go private, behind more closed doors. Maybe because it will be more difficult for competitors to “read” ICA?
Private Label must hold their prices
In the current inflationary environment, where FMCG manufacturers are looking to pass on the full impact of cost increases to consumers, retailers in many markets are strategically poised to hold prices of their private label products in categories where they want to increase penetration and grow value sales.
British Morrisons Go Private
Shareholders in Morrisons have approved CD&R’s £7.1bn takeover offer, bringing the curtain down on a fiercely contested battle for the UK’s fourth-largest grocer.
Coop's climate investment is OK
Considering the great focus on climate change throughout the world, Coop Denmark has set itself a goal of reducing its CO2 emissions by 75 percent by 2025.
Tesco posts impressive results
Tesco’s forecast for full-year earnings are impressive. Nonetheless there are considerable headwinds ahead, but the company benefits from a robust supply chain.
Empty Christmas shelves in UK
Covid has created supply problems in all industries all over the world the past year. The combination of Brexit in the UK and Covid triples the challenges. Iceland, the frozen food chain in the UK, warns that there may be empty shelves for Christmas.
Rema fastest growing discounter in Denmark
Fakta is no longer Denmark’s second largest grocery chain. Rema 1000 has taken that position with 353 stores against Fakta’s 340 stores. However, the lead dog is still Netto, owned by The Salling group, with 516 discount stores.
Industry mix is name of the game
Industry slippage or industry mix, as some prefer to call it, is nothing new, but nonetheless very important in all retailing. This year it is one of the main topics at the FOOD conference.
Ica Sweden not growing at the same rate as the market
Ica Sweden did not have the same growth as the market during the second quarter. It also includes e-commerce which is related to the very strong volume increase that the Ica stores managed to achieve last year when they grew much faster than the market.
Morrisons sold
Morrisons’, Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group after Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda, has agreed a 6.3-billion-pound ($8.7 billion) takeover by a trio of investment groups led by Fortress Investment Group.
Morrisons in Play
US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is expected to push ahead with its pursuit of Morrisons despite an initial offer at £5.5bn being rejected. Analysts believe the UK’s fourth largest supermarket chain could also attract bids from other companies, including Amazon.
American grocery business post Corona
As North American consumers begin to adjust to the next normal, McKinsey, a global and prestigious consultancy, anticipate that the landscape of winners and losers in grocery will cease to be determined by format.
Axfood buys Bergendahls Food
Axfood acquires Bergendahl's wholesale business and one tenth of City Gross. A transaction of SEK 2.5 billion with full call option exercise.
Aldi Denmark has an accumulated loss of DKK 4 billion
It is no secret that Aldi Denmark has been under pressure for many years, and that the money has flowed out, while the German owners have poured new capital into the discount chain - a total of around DKK 4 billion, according to Børsen, a newspaper.
Five reasons FMCG businesses should be investing in Asia
Asia remains a major growth opportunity for FMCG businesses, particularly in the short term, consultancy IGD concludes in a new report.
The green trend is growing
Women are leading the way in the transition to a sustainable food system and real flavors are taking place among the substitutes. These are among the conclusions in this year's future report from ICA, "Growing Together".
Salling Group with historical results
Denmark's largest grocery group, Salling Group, came out of 2020 with the best underlying result and the highest turnover ever. CEO Per Bank believes in even more growth in top and bottom line.
Tesco profits dive
Tesco profits dive 20% despite surging grocery sales during pandemic. The pre-tax profits tumbled by almost 20 per cent to £ 825 million over the past year, despite big increases in turnover.
Netto tests climate labeling
As the first store chain in Denmark, Salling-owned Netto is now testing how climate labeling of grocery purchases can work. This is done in a pilot test in two selected stores, where signage and labeling of the products will guide customers to the less climate-damaging alternatives.
American giant Costco opens in Sweden
Next autumn, the US-based chain Costco will open its first Swedish store in Arninge, Täby, north of Stockholm. A contract with the property owner Trophi for premises of 13,000 square meters is ready, confirms CEO Jan Björk.
Heavy Covid 19 costs for Morrisons
Annual results released by Morrisons last week confirm that while its sales have benefitted from surging demand in supermarkets over the last year, profits have taken a major hit from costs related to operating its business during the pandemic.
Rema 1000 most sustainable in Denmark
Rema 1000 is now perceived as the most sustainable brand in Denmark, new research shows. For the past three years, the grocery group Coop has been the most sustainable brand in Denmark. Now it is Rema.
Reitan’s green convenience
With a new concept, Reitan Convenience in Sweden hope to create the world's greenest convenience/grocery store, claims Mariette Kristenson, CEO of Reitan Convenience Sweden.
Tesco disappears from Southeast Asia
The massive private Thai group, Charoen Pokphand, rebrands all former Tesco stores in Malaysia and Thailand to Lotus’s. No more Tesco in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
End of Netto in Sweden
In 2019 Denmark's largest grocery group, Salling Group, said goodbye to the Swedish market with the divestment of a total of 163 Netto stores, which were sold to the Swedish company CBS for almost DKK 1 billion.
ICA disappoints the market
The Swedish giant, ICA, disappoints the market at the end of the year and the stock exchange sends the share values down by about 0,4 percent. The reason is that ICA is growing slower than the market, hence losing market share in a market that is growing strongly due to the Corona pandemic.
Amazon expands biometric palm scanning system
Amazon recently announced that the company is expanding the rollout of its biometric palm scanning system to more of its branded stores, allowing customers to pay with nothing but their hands.
Five trends to watch in 2021
Driving online profitability, creating safe shopping spaces, and bringing the out-of-home experience in-home are among the key trends expected to shape global retail in 2021, according to new predictions from IGD.
French Labor Minister says no
Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne gives a clear message that she is against a takeover of French retailer Carrefour by Canadian convenience-store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Alimentation Couche-Tard offers $ 20 billion for Carrefour
The owner of the Circle K petrol station chain, Canadian Alimentation Couche-Tard, is offering $ 20 billion for the world's second largest grocery chain - French Carrefour SA. That is about 30 percent above current capitalized values in Carrefour.
Jack Ma goes missing
Alibaba's founder, Jack Ma, has gone missing after he publicly criticized China's financial system and called for reforms.
Brexit food price increases are modest
It is reason to believe that food prices in UK will rise modestly in the wake of Brexit because food import and export regulations are very similar to the situation ex ante Brexit.
Salling Group with record growth in turnover
Denmark's largest grocery group, Salling Group, was extremely busy in 2020 and increased its turnover at an unprecedented rate.
Giant bang for the grocery giants
The Norwegian Competition Authority is cracking down hard on the use of “price spies” in the major grocery chains in the Norwegian market and warns of a possible fine of NOK 21 billion to NorgesGruppen, Coop and The Reitan Group combined.
Accelerating online growth for ICA in 2020
The Swedish grocery giant ICA reports accelerating online growth so far in 2020, not least driven by Covid19. Turnover at the store level is also increasing for the same reason.
Tesco Shareholders Set For £5bn Payout
Tesco has announced that it expects to complete the £8bn sale of its businesses in Thailand and Malaysia to the CP Group within days.
Strong Q3 in Walmart
The world’s biggest grocery retailer, Walmart, is among the many grocery retailers that scores high on Covid19. The retail giant delivered a positive surprise despite analysts' optimism about its performance.
Unilever tests 4 day week
Consumer goods giant Unilever will trial a four-day working week in New Zealand to enhance worker wellbeing and boost productivity.
Grab Inc stands firm on IPO plans despite Covid19
Singapore's Grab has not changed its thinking regarding a future IPO because of COVID-19, according to its president, Ming Maa.
Walmart to sell most of Seiyu to KKR and Rakuten
U.S retailer Walmart Inc has agreed to sell most of Japanese supermarket chain Seiyu to the investment firm KKR and e-commerce company Rakuten in a deal that values Seiyu at $ 1.65 billion (172.5 billion yen).
Walmart drop robot plans
Walmart has dropped plans to use roving robots to scan shelves and keep track of inventory, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.