Supermarket/Grocery

Walmart China CEO Greg Foran reiterated the company’s goal of accelerating Sam’s Club growth in the coming years with several published reports indicating the pace of Sam’s Club openings may eventually reach 10 units annually.

St. Petersburg, Fla. — The Sembler Company is redeveloping the Publix Shopping Center at 3700 4th Street North in St. Petersburg, Fla., on behalf of Publix Super Markets.

Publix will close the store on Dec. 28 to begin the redevelopment of the 50,600-sq.-ft. grocery store and associated liquor store. Improvements will include the construction of new buildings, new landscaping and parking areas. Publix expects to re-open in its new buildings in late 2014.

London — Starwood Capital Group has acquired seven retail parks and shopping gallerias in Sweden for SEK 3.9 billion, according to CBRE, Starwood’s adviser on the transaction. Kooperativa Forbundet, a Swedish retail group, was the seller.

New York -- Whole Foods Market sees the potential to expand to 1,200 stores throughout the United States, which is nearly three times the number of locations it currently operates worldwide, the company’s co-chief executives co-CEOs John Mackey and Walter Robb said in an interview on CNBC on Tuesday.

Cincinnati – Kroger has promoted Mark Tuffin to senior VP of retail divisions. He succeeds Michael Ellis, who will become Kroger's president and COO on Jan. 1, 2014.

Austin, Texas -- Merchandise optimization solution-provider Revionics said that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with DIXY Group, one of Russia’s largest national retail operators in the food retail market, to provide Revionics price optimization solution to the company’s DIXY Neighborhood Stores, which includes 1,580 retail stores.

Faced with unwavering demand for its brand of food retailing and an abundance of potential locations, Whole Foods executives on Tuesday increased their forecast for U.S. store growth to 1,200 locations from 1,000.

DNA Brands, maker of DNA Energy Drink, has signed a new distribution agreement with Koerner Distributor to sell its rebranded energy drink line and latest energy coffee drink products.

Koerner Distributor has four branches which cover a population of more than 1 million people in 52 Illinois counties. Koerner distributes of beer, wine and liquor brands such as Miller, Coors and Corona to retailers such as Schnucks, Shop N Save, Deirberg's, Circle K, Casey General Store and Huck's.

Another piece of the leadership puzzle fell into place at Kroger as the company continues to execute a succession strategy backed by the tailwind of 40 consecutive quarter of same store sales growth.

Kroger named Mark Tuffin to the role of SVP of the company’s retail divisions to fill a position previously held by Michael Ellis who was elevated to the role of president and COO last month. Tuffin previously served as president of the company’s Smith’s Food and Drug Stores division.

New York -- Whole Foods Market has inked a deal for a new location in the Bryant Park area of Manhattan – on Sixth Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets.

A Wall Street Journal report, which cited unnamed sources, said that the grocer has agreed to take 10,000 sq. ft. on the ground floor and 22,000 sq. ft. on the second floor at 1095 Sixth Ave., a building owned by a Blackstone Group fund.