Discount Variety Retail Chain Poundland UK (owned by Pepco Group) has brought back the £1 price point on big brand family favourite products across its UK stores. The ‘Operation Sell for Less’ campaign is rolling out and will see many items at over a third less than their RRPs. Products seeing a 25p price drop to £1 include Dettol surface wipes, Harpic cleaning gels, Johnsons cotton buds, Nivea shower creams and Lynx deodorant. Across its food offerings, Six-pack Seabrooks, Cheetos and Smiths crisps will be lowered in price by 50p to £1, while one litre bottles of Coca-Cola will see a 65p reduction. Pot Noodles, Disney baby wipes and various Bodyform lines which are currently £1 will also see drops below the staple price point. This comes as Poundland is accelerating its grocery rollout, which includes chilled, frozen, fresh fruit and veg, as well as beers, wines and spirits. Last month, frozen and chilled food launched in 24 more stores, bringing the total number of sites offering the ranges to over 570. Over the coming weeks, the value retail chain is also expanding its store portfolio as it begins to open or relocate nine new stores in Braehead, Frome, Torquay, Ipswich, Selby, Pontefract, Cardiff, Stafford and Ryde. Up to six other stores are also planned to open before the end of September, subject to legal agreements. Poundland trading director, Tim Bettley, said: “We’ve worked hard since the beginning of the cost-of-living crisis to maintain our promise of amazing value to customers and our consistent, steady growth shows they’ve noticed. “We know that discounters like us passing on cost savings quickly, can help lower prices right across the market and drive inflation down faster. “We’re committed to that mission of delivering amazing value and it we know how much that matters to our customers.” Read more: Poundland brings back £1 price point on big brand products - Grocery Gazette - Latest Grocery Industry News

The prices of our groceries will remain at a high level in the coming months. As a result, consumers are buying more and more creatively. They more often opt for private labels and buy their products from discounters or other low-cost carriers. "At the beginning of this year, there was still a slight decrease. But if we look at the period from January to June, the prices of our groceries remain at a stable high level," says Eric Harmsen of research firm GfK. "That means that on balance prices are 11 to 12 percent higher than last year." Food prices rose by 11.6 percent in July, making them the main drivers of inflation in the Netherlands, according to figures from statistics agency CBS. Supermarkets benefited from this and saw their turnover increase by 12 percent. According to Harmsen, due to the rise in raw material and energy prices, we will continue to pay more for food and drink in the coming months. "As a result, certain products have become more expensive, such as pasta. They also notice this in Italy, for example. Energy prices are now falling, but suppliers have contracts for a longer period of time." Economist Jan-Paul van de Kerke of ABN AMRO agrees. "Energy and raw material costs have risen sharply and that is being passed on throughout the chain. That ultimately affects the consumer." Van de Kerke also notes that the increased wage costs play an increasingly important role. Wages in the supermarket sector have also risen by around 10 percent. "That ultimately drives up prices a bit." Consumers opt for private labels GfK researcher Harmsen says that since the beginning of this year, consumers have more often opted for private labels. "For the first time, the turnover of these products is higher than that of A-brands." Trade association Centraal Bureau Levensmiddelenhandel (CBL) emphasizes that supermarkets do everything they can to keep prices for consumers as low as possible. "The food that supermarkets buy and resell to consumers has often come a long way. From the raw materials for animal feed to grain for biscuits and breakfast products and the tomatoes for pizza. Many products also need to be packaged, cooled, heated and transported," explains a spokesperson. 'In the end, everything is connected' "The many hundreds of thousands of companies involved in the production and distribution of food worldwide have recently had to deal with sharply rising costs for energy, rent, logistics and production. Personnel costs have also risen sharply. At the end of the day, everything is interrelated and that is reflected in the price that a consumer pays in the store for his shopping basket." The CBL expects the geopolitical unrest to continue and the markets to remain disrupted for an extended period of time. The sector association for supermarkets calls on all parties in the food chain to bear part of the increased costs, so that not everything ends up on the consumer's plate. Read more: Customers more often opt for private label and price fighters know that groceries remain expensive | Economy | NU.nl

Discount Variety Retail Chain Dollar General (listed NASDAQ: DG) is experimenting with cashierless technology in one of its North Carolina stores. The discount retailer has partnered with AI retail tech company AiFi to offer the cashierless technology in Banner Elk, N.C., reports Business Insider. AiFi is a startup that positions itself against Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, and currently has systems in over 100 stores globally. “Consistent with our ongoing strategy to continually look for new ways to meet our customers’ value and convenience needs, we recently piloted a store with frictionless technology,” Dollar General told Insider. “While we do not currently plan to expand this technology, we instead will continue to test and learn.” The tech really got its start with Amazon and its “just walk out” concept, which first came on the market in 2018. The tech involves a number of cameras which track what items shoppers leave the store with. So far, traditional grocers have been hesitant to adopt or experiment with the tech. Over the last several years, Amazon had been marching ahead with the rollout of its Just Walk Out and cashierless tech, but more recently the company announced it would be closing stores in high density areas like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. Dollar General lessened expectations for 2023 following mixed Q1 results. During the first 13 weeks of the year, which ended on May 5, Dollar General experienced year-over-year increases in net sales (6.8%) and same-store sales (1.6%) while taking a slight hit in operating profit, which was down 0.7% to just over $740 million. The retailer was originally calling for net sales growth in the range of 5.5% to 6% for the year, but is now planning on a rise of 3.5% to 5%. Same-store sales growth was set at 3% to 3.5%, but has been revised to 1% to 2%. Capital expenditures, however, also have been lowered from as much as $1.9 billion originally to $1.6-1.7 billion. Along with the drop in financial earnings, Dollar General also is tapping the brakes on growth. The retailer expects to complete 3,110 projects this year instead of 3,170. There will be 990 new store openings, 2,000 remodels, and 120 store relocations. Read more: Dollar General goes cashierless at one store in North Carolina (supermarketnews.com)

Aldi will continue to optimize its distribution network in the Netherlands. The sub-decentralization at Aldi in the Netherlands is still in process. After the expansion of the distribution center of in Zoetermeer (Rotterdam region), the DC at Roosendaal (south-west of the Netherlands) will also follow. This distribution center will be expanded by 8,450m2. This DC will also be made gas-free and equipped with 1 MWp. Source: Aldi Nord #smartdiscount #aldi #dc #expansion #netherlands #acquisition #drc #discount #retail #consulting #discountretail #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting

Russian largest retailer, X5 Group, continues to expand their successful discount concept, Chiznik, into the southern regions of Russia. The company plans to bring the Chizhik hard discounter format to the Krasnodar region (homeland of competitor Magnit) and the Rostov region. In total this year, X5 will create more than 3,500 jobs in the southern regions, comments a spokesman from X5. Since the beginning of 2023, the retailer has opened more than 100 new stores. By the end of the year, the total number of new openings must be more than 350 stores. Source: Retail.ru: https://www.retail.ru/news/pervye-chizhiki-poyavyatsya-na-kubani-i-donu-v-2023-godu-25-iyulya-2023-230977/

Lidl, which wanted to take over 600 stores of the French chain, is losing out. Lidl parent company Schwarz intervened at the last minute in the take-over-battle of the French Casino Group. Taking over the 300 Casino and 300 Monoprix stores would be the ideal way for Lidl to expand within the neighboring country of home country Germany. Now, the ailing Casino Group has fallen into the hands of Czech entrepreneur Daniel Křetínský. Reuters news agency reports that the takeover by Křetínský has been approved. Under the leadership of the new owner, Casino Group has entered into a long-awaited agreement with its creditors, hoping to avert bankruptcy. The final offer of Daniel Křetínský, who also has shares in the Dutch Makro and the German Metro, was chosen. He promises a capital injection of 1.2 billion euros for Casino Group. A restructuring process is underway at the French company. However, Křetínský says to keep as many people on board as possible and to hire more people in the shops and the DCs. Casino Group has a total of 6.4 billion in debt, half of which must be repaid within two years. Earlier this month, the company announced that its debts were too high to pay and sought protection from creditors. Casino has been given longer time to pay the salaries and taxes. The Casino Group employs about 53,000 employees. Source: Retail Trends #smartdiscount #lidl #casinogroup #casino #monoprix #makro #metro #france #merge #acquisition #reuters #drc #discount #retail #consulting #discountretail #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting

Discount Retail Chain ŞOK (owned by the Turkish YILDIZ Holding) organises campaigns for its customers every week in different product groups, selected products and brands with "Win". Uğur Demirel, CEO of ŞOK Marketler, said: "Not only in certain periods, but every day of the year, we bring quality products to our customers at the most affordable prices. We support this policy with regular campaigns in different product groups and different brands. Our aim is to determine the needs of our customers in the most accurate way and to ensure that all their needs are met from the nearest point and at the most affordable price. With the Win loyalty programme we have implemented, we aim to earn our customers as they shop and thus contribute more to their budgets." Read more: (+9) ŞOK launches new loyalty programme Win (ortakalan.org)

There are more and more cheap organic food on the shelves of supermarkets even the discounters outdo each other with offers. Are organic pioneers the losers of this boom? Aldi Süd has just gone on the offensive again: "Only nature, that's organic that goes further, for a conscious diet," says the commercial for the new brand of the discount supermarket chain. A press spokeswoman explains what "goes on" means in concrete terms: "The unique selling point of the brand is based on ingredients that are as original as possible, such as spelt, sea and rock salt instead of table or industrial salt and gentle processing." Sentences that used to be heard only in health food stores, but not from the industry giants. "Quality will suffer" Since 1987 there has been the organic shop "Quer Beet" in Kassel. Owner Mira Sulzbacher feels every day what it means when there is more and more cheap organic at discounters. "Of course, our organic shop is a bit more expensive than the organic at Lidl or Aldi, so customers are already leaving. We have noticed in particular that less fruit and vegetables are being bought, which has always been our strongest pillar. But it has also become less overall." The 33-year-old grew up in the shop her father founded. 36 years ago, Martin Sulzbacher was one of the first in northern Hesse to focus on organic. He was often laughed at for his idealism. He is sceptical about the development towards more and more organic from discounters: "If everyone goes organic, it won't be the same. Bioland will cut corners, Demeter probably too. So I'm afraid the quality will suffer as a result." It resonates with customers There were similar fears when Lidl and Bioland announced their cooperation in 2018. Nothing has happened, except that customers can now buy organic cheaper. And the figures show that this is well received. Sales of organic food in Germany have more than doubled from 7 billion euros in 2012 to 15 billion in 2022. According to market researcher GfK, sales of organic supermarkets slumped by 10.8 percent last year. The health food stores even recorded a minus of 37.5 percent. The situation is quite different for the private labels of retail chains: they have increased by nine percent. Organic as the "new normal"? Aldi Süd is focusing on this effect with the new brand. They are supported by the organic association Naturland, whose logo can be found on some of the products. "We have the climate catastrophe, we have the dramatic loss of biodiversity, we have animal husbandry that is completely unacceptable in parts, and organic is simply part of the solution to these problems. That's why organic is imperative as the 'new normal'," says Naturland Managing Director Steffen Reese. For him, there is no alternative to working with discounters to reach mass customers. So are Naturland and Co. partly responsible for the decline of small shops? "I don't think success eats the pioneers at this point," says Reese. "We have different target groups in the discount and health food trade, and I believe that if we succeed in attracting more organic customers through the discount, then they will also go to the organic shops in search of other products." Where is all the organic supposed to come from? Norbert Klapp has been a pig farmer for 30 years. His breeding stables have husbandry type 2, which means "stable husbandry plus". This is slightly above the legal minimum standards: Each breeding sow has 0.8 square meters of space. Around 95 percent of the breeding stables in Germany have this type of husbandry. A conversion to organic farming would be expensive: "I'm at just under a million euros that I would have to invest," says Klapp. "Of course, I'm also worried about it. The problem at the moment is still security, long-term contracts, for example, so that I don't get stuck with my investments." The farmer advises not to always look at the organic seals, but to buy regionally produced products. Not all organic products are the same Mira Sulzbacher from the organic shop "Quer Beet" also says that her organic from the region is very different from the discounter organic: "The main aspect for me is actually regionality and seasonality. We have many suppliers here directly from Kassel or the surrounding area. These are very small companies, which means that we simply have a much wider range of direct suppliers." She also thinks that it is good for everyone that more and more food is being produced according to the high organic standards. She wants to persevere and hopes that organic will really become the "new normal" and that her organic shop will also benefit from it. Read more: Discount supermarkets conquer the organic food business | tagesschau.de

Dollar General will start construction next year on a $35.4 million cold storage center after the discount retailer was awarded tax incentives last week from the Montgomery County Industrial Development Agency, reports media platform The Business Journals. The 150,000-square-foot Dollar General fresh center will open in Florida, N.Y., and is expected to create 150 jobs. It will also supply goods to approximately 1,200 Dollar General Stores. The center will be located across the road from the $91 million, 750,000-square-foot distribution center it recently constructed in 2018. Once completed, the discount retailer will become the fifth-largest chain operating one of the biggest distribution hubs in the region, ranking behind Target, Ace, Amazon, and SLA Transport - Universal Warehouse Inc. Dollar General filed for its incentive application last summer and was approved for approximately $2.5 million in sales tax exemptions and $2.2 million in property tax exemptions. Last month, Dollar General also announced expansions in its global supply chain network including the opening of its first ground-up, dual facility in Blair, Neb., and two permanent regional distribution hubs in Newnan, Ga., and Fort Worth, Texas. The company also announced expansion plans in Jonesville, S.C., and Amsterdam, N.Y., at existing facilities. The discount retailer is also constructing three more distribution centers in North Little Rock, Ark.; Aurora, Colorado.; and Salem, Oregon. Source: Supermarket News #dollargeneral #distributioncenter #DC #coldstorage #thebusinessjournal #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #retailconsulting #discountretailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Logistical efficiency, greater sustainability - extended freshness! With reusable crates for fruits and vegetables, the Aldi Nord Group of Companies is making a lasting improvement to its supply chains. Together with Aldi Sud and its partner IFCO systems - the leading supplier of reusable packaging containers (RPCs) - it has completed the roll-out of the project and black RPCs can now be found all over Europe to ensure a consistent overall store design. The Reverse Logistics Specialist at Aldi Einkauf SE & Co oHG is happy about the progress. "Our team is responsible for implementing sustainable packaging solutions within the Aldi supply chain. With a focus on secondary packaging, we are pleased to have made a further contribution to waste prevention. But our mission is not yet complete, as other commodity groups will be next”. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 - freshness is a strategic focus topic for the Aldi Nord Group of Companies. Therefore, Aldi aims at offering its customers fruit and vegetables that feel, look and taste fresh - even days after purchase. By using the reusable crates a high food quality is ensured; - fewer rejects in the supply chain and therefore less food waste due to the better quality of the returnable crates compared to cardboard box; - logistically, handling processes are improved by using returnable crates. As they can be folded, additional transport capacity is saved and less air is transported which reduces CO2 emissions; - RPCs save costs within the entire supply chain. By eliminating the need for disposable packaging, Aldi proactively contributes to environmental protection. 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗶𝗿𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆 With RPCs, Aldi is setting the standard for closed-loop sustainability and circular economy in food retail packaging. Aldi is committed to significantly reduce its product packaging and the RPCs are just one example of this. The crates can be used up to 120 times before being recycled and made into new crates. Source: Aldi Nord #Aldi #ifco #rpc #europe #germany #reusable #creates #sustainability #efficiency #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Discounter Bodega del Canasto (owned by the Portugese Jeronimo Martins group) opened 6 stores in 2023. Source: Bodega del Canasto #bodegadelcanasto #colombia #expansion #smartdiscount #discountfoodretail #discounter #discount #foodretail #retail #drc #discountretailconsulting #retailconsulting #consulting #consultancy

Discount Retail Chain Aldi Ireland (German family owned) has announced plans to remove coloured plastic caps from its milk cartons in a bid to further improve the recyclability of its products. As part of the initiative the retailer says its private label 'Clonbawn`branded milk products will now come with clear caps, which are easier to recycle. The rollout, which will take place on a phased basis, has already commenced across 500ml and 1-litre milk products, as well as cream lines, with other products to follow over the coming months. Aldi says it has been working with its long-standing suppliers including Lakelands Dairies from County Monaghan, Strathroy Dairies from Tyrone, and Aurivo in Sligo, on the programme. It is estimated the introduction of the clear tops will result in an additional 70 tonnes per year of recycled High-Density Polythene (rHDPE) being turned back into food-grade packaging, as the tops will be reused to create new milk cartons. Luke Emery, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi, said: "We have pledged that all of our packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, and this switch from coloured to clear caps across our milk products is the latest step we are taking. With this switch to clear milk tops, it means they are now easier to recycle, and they can be turned back into new packaging. “We know it’s becoming increasingly important to our customers that their everyday products are environmentally-friendly, as it is to us, and we are constantly reviewing ways to become a more sustainable business.” Aldi says it is committed to reducing the amount of plastic used across its 160-strong store network in Ireland as part of its ongoing carbon reduction programme. To date, the German-owned company has removed more than 2,150-tonnes of virgin plastic from its Irish store network and replaced 930-tonnes of unrecyclable material with recyclable alternatives as part of its pledge for all packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Read more: Large Irish retailer announces major initiative to reduce plastic use in stores - Kildare Live (leinsterleader.ie)