Supermarket/Grocery

Singapore -- Two retail chains in Singapore, Cold Storage and Guardian, have selected the Pricer ESL (electronic shelf label) solution in their stores and the rollout is planned to be completed by the end of 2015. The two chains are under the umbrella of The Dairy Farm Group.

Cold Storage operates about 50 large supermarkets in Singapore while Guardian operates 150 pharmacy stores.

Walmart U.S. president and CEO Greg Foran, just six days into his new job when Walmart reported second quarter results, shared some general and familiar insights on driving growth.

Bentonville, Ark. – Consolidated net income at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew 0.6% to $4.1 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 from $4.07 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2013, with factors including incremental e-commerce investments and healthcare costs dampening profit growth. Wal-Mart cut its profit forecast for the full year as a result.

Overall second quarter performance at Wal-Mart was sluggish. Net sales rose 3% to $119.3 billion from $116.1 billion. Currency exchange rate fluctuations negatively impacted net sales performance.

Walmart met low second quarter sales and profit expectations it set for itself but significantly lowered its full year outlook due to a tepid third quarter sales forecast and increased e-commerce and health care costs.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. - Paula A. Price, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and former CFO of Ahold USA, has been named to the Dollar General board of directors effective Aug. 26. The election of Price to Dollar General’s board will bring the total number of directors to eight.

Loblaw has appointed Pavi Binning, George Weston Limited president, as a director on the company’s board.

Binning has been a director of George Weston Limited since 2012. He joined the company in 2010 as CFO after spending a year as a director of Loblaw Companies Limited. Prior to joining Weston, Binning was at Nortel Networks Corporation, where he held the role of CFO and subsequently chief restructuring officer. Prior to that, Binning held CFO positions at both Hanson plc and Marconi Corporation plc, as well as executive positions at Diageo plc.

Former Ahold and CVS executive Paula Price is the newest member of the Dollar General board of directors.

She joins the board of the 11,500 store retailer at a pivotal time. Dollar General is in the midst of a search for a top executive to succeed Rick Dreiling who has indicated he will step down next year and two of the company’s arch rivals, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, have announced plans to merge.

Profitero, a leading global provider of online insights and e-commerce intelligence for retailers and brands, has appointed Raj Khathuria as VP of sales for North America.

Khathuria has more than 17 years of sales management experience. He previously led the North American sales operation for MarkMonitor, a global leader in online brand protection (acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2012), where he was responsible for growth in key vertical markets including consumer goods, luxury apparel and electronics.