Supermarket/Grocery

A new ad campaign from Food Lion, airing in select markets, promotes the message that the retailer has raised its standards, but not its prices.

The new campaign plays on familiar themes in the grocery industry — convenience, freshness, price and trust — and is designed to support Food Lion’s effort to upgrade the store experience in key markets, where major remodeling and remerchandising efforts have occurred.

Fred's Inc. has appointed Rick Hans as executive VP and CFO. He fills the position left open when Jerry A. Shore, Fred's former finance head, was promoted to CEO in October 2014.

Prior to joining Fred's, Hans enjoyed a 27-year career with Walgreens, where he most recently served as VP of investor relations and finance. Hans previously held the position of director of finance and assistant treasurer, where he promoted a sound capital structure that subsequently provided the basis for major strategic acquisitions.

Consumers who rely on mobile coupons when food shopping are much more likely to experiment with new brands.

According to the latest edition of GfK MRI’s “The Survey of the American Consumer,” one in three (33%) U.S. adults agrees completely or somewhat with the statement, “I rely on mobile coupons while food shopping.” And almost half (44%) of these mobile coupon users say they like to “change brands often for the sake of variety and novelty,” compared to just 30% of the general population.

Walgreens Boots Alliance on Tuesday announced an increase of 13.6% in net sales to $30.2 billion for the second quarter ended Feb. 29, 2016, compared with the same quarter a year ago, largely due to the full consolidation of Alliance Boots for the entire quarter this year. Foreign currency translation adversely impacted sales by approximately $750 million or 2.4%.

For only the third time in three years, Kroger has created a new installment of its Savor World Flavor globally themed promotional effort.
 

H-E-B is planning to build a two-story grocery store in Bellaire, Texas, featuring the latest in food market retailing to open in the fall of 2017, Fox 7 reported Wednesday.

"We have enjoyed our Bellaire neighbors for the past 22 years and look forward to bringing them a store tailored to their needs filled with stellar features and products that will enhance their shopping experience for years to come," Scott McClelland, H-E-B Houston president, told Fox 7.

The Kroger Co. is making a “meaningful” investment in specialty natural/organic grocery chain Lucky’s Market that could expand the supermarket giant’s product assortment.

Kroger did not disclose the size of its stake in Lucky’s, which is based in Boulder, Colorado, and operates 17 stores in 13 states throughout the Midwest and Southeast U.S. Lucky’s stores average 30,000-sq.-ft. and are laid out to resemble an indoor farmers market, and also offer an assortment of prepared foods.

There are going to be a lot of happy chickens roaming free in the coming years as retailer after retailer establish dates by which they will offer only cage-free eggs.

Meijer and Supervalu recently announced plans to source only cage-free eggs by 2025, joining Delhaize and Albertson’s who earlier this year set 2025 as their cage-free deadline. Ahold USA earlier this year also indicated it would be cage-free by 2022. Walmart and Costco have also announced cage-free commitments as have some major food suppliers such as Nestle.