ZAANDAM, Netherlands — Royal Ahold Delhaize NV said its net income more than quadrupled in the fourth quarter to 744 million euros ($909.6 million), as the retailer enjoyed a solid holiday season and benefitted from a decrease in income taxes in Belgium and the United States. The year-on-year comparison also benefitted from the absence of
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Mark Mechelse has been promoted to vice president of insights and communications at the Global Market Development Center (GMDC). GMDC said Tuesday that, in the new role, Mechelse will oversee the association’s efforts to advocate for the general merchandise and health, beauty and wellness categories on behalf of members. He joined GMDC in 2011 as
BRAMPTON, Ontario —Loblaw Cos. reported that its overall retail sales for the fourth quarter fell 1.2% to $10.72 billion (all figures Canadian), down from $10.85 billion a year earlier. Excluding the consolidation of franchises, retail sales were down 2% year over year, the company said. Food retail sales came in at $7.55 billion in the quarter ended
Amazon.com has made an own-brand foray into the over-the-counter health products market. Published reports said Amazon has quietly introduced a line of OTCs under the Basic Care brand, including items provided by Ireland-based store-brand and generic drug maker Perrigo plc, whose Good Sense private-label products already were sold by the e-tailing giant. The first
NEW YORK — Sales of store brand merchandise in the mass channel (mass merchants, club stores and dollar stores) increased last year on a dollar basis and a unit basis, the Private Label Manufacturers Associated (PLMA) said on Wednesday, citing sales data from Nielsen. Dollar sales rose 9.3% in 2017 and unit sales increased 9.1%,
WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. — Tops Friendly Markets LLC on Wednesday announced it is pursuing a financial restructuring in order to eliminate a substantial portion of debt from its balance sheet and position the company for success. Tops said its has 169 full-service supermarkets and five franchisee-operated stores under the Tops Markets banner in upstate New York,
BENTONVLLE, Ark. — Walmart on Tuesday reported $136.3 billion in revenue in its fourth quarter, an increase of 4.1% from a year earlier. For the full fiscal year 2018, the company had revenue of $500.3 billion, a 3% increase from the preceding year. The company said comparable-store sales at its U.S. stores rose 2.6% in
NEW YORK — Helena Foulkes has taken the position of chief executive officer of Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC), which operates the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue department store chains. She joins HBC from CVS Health, where she worked for 25 years, most recently as corporate executive vice president and president of CVS Pharmacy,
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) is reportedly seeking to acquire drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp. The Wall Street Journal reported on February 13 that representatives of WBA executive vice chairman and chief executive officer Stefano Pessina made “a high-level outreach” to representatives of AmerisourceBergen CEO Steven Collis several weeks before the story came out.
CINCINNATI — Kroger Co. has agreed to sell its convenience store business to EG Group, a privately held c-store retailer based in Blackburn, Lancashire, United Kingdom. The transaction, which is valued at $1.25 billion, is expected to close during the first quarter of Kroger’s financial year, or by May 26. Kroger had announced last October
ARLINGTON, Va. — Two recent studies indicate that household penetration of online grocery shopping is picking up steam. One, a joint project of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Nielsen, projects that in five to seven years 70% of Americans will be grocery shopping online. Last year FMI and Nielsen issued their first-year findings, which
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Rick Gates has been named senior vice president of pharmacy and health care for Walgreens. Prior to his promotion, Gates was serving as group vice president of pharmacy. In his new role, Gates will oversee commercial development and sales, contracting, pharma development, pharmacy supply chain, and clinical programs and alliances. He reports