Food
The lockdown measures against the coronavirus proved to be a blessing for meal supplier HelloFresh: in the second quarter just as in the first, demand for meal boxes increased sharply.
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Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important in the supermarket industry, but biased algorithms can do great damage. Ahold Delhaize wants to pay more attention to this, says top executive Frans Muller.
Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo saw a 14?% turnover growth in the first six months of?2020, exceeding market growth of 8.5?%. Online sales exploded, but progress in Belgium was slower than expected and the La Place restaurants seem to be in a bit of a pickle.
The corona crisis has accelerated the growth of online grocery shopping at an unprecedented rate. At least part of that growth is permanent and that is bad news: e-commerce in food is not profitable. Is there a way out?
Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo is restructuring its restaurant business La Place: 23 restaurants, or more than a quarter of all establishments, are closing due to the corona crisis.
Annick van Overstraeten becomes top executive of the "new" Le Pain Quotidien. For ten years Van Overstraeten was CEO of Lunch Garden, now she has to take care of the restart of the bakery-restaurants.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons launches an assault on obesity: he wants to ban promotions for unhealthy food in supermarkets. The corona crisis has strengthened his conviction, he says.
More than half of the French Carrefour hypermarkets are loss-making. The supermarket group is investing in mobile payment options and an Amazon Go variant to make shopping as easy as possible.
Walmart+, the long-awaited membership program of the world's largest supermarket chain, is due to be launched this month. It should be an alternative to Amazon Prime.
Amazon is attacking the supermarket landscape with several concepts at the same time: after the growth of home delivery during the corona crisis, the cash-less Amazon Go concept is expanding further, while "regular" supermarkets are also being added.
Now that Nestlé can no longer call its "just like real" plant-based burger Incredible, the name changes to "Sensational". The burger comes with an improved recipe.
In Germany, a reduction in VAT leads to an unseen price war, with rivals Aldi and Lidl using comparative advertising to claim price leadership.
Carrefour customers in France can now add their loyalty card to their Apple Wallet, so that they can pay with their iPhone or Apple Watch and at the same time use the loyalty programme.
Lidl Belgium's fair trade chocolate bars 'Way to Go!' are going international: the chocolate is also finding its way onto store shelves in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Sainsbury's, the second largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, had a strong 'Covid quarter': in the midst of the corona crisis, its turnover rose sharply as online sales more than doubled.
Belgian retailer Colruyt Group takes a majority stake in data specialist Daltix. Colruyt wants to expand its real-time insights into price and consumer behaviour, while Daltix hopes to realise its international growth ambitions.
