Supermarket/Grocery

Tewksbury, Mass. – The saga over the dismissal of former Demoulas Super Markets Inc. CEO Arthur T. Demoulas continues, with Demoulas making public commentary for the first time.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot Inc. has named retail veteran Mark Cosby as president, North America. Cosby, 55, most recently served as president of pharmacy at CVS Caremark. He will be a member of Office Depot’s executive committee and leadership team and report to Roland Smith, chairman and CEO of Office Depot.

Cosby joins Office Depot following a 30-year career at a number of leading retail chains. Prior to CVS, Cosby spent five years at Macy’s Inc., where he served in a number of executive roles, including president, stores.

London -- Natalie Berg, global research director at Planet Retail, commented:

“As a branding expert, Lewis’ first task will be to define Tesco. Philip Clarke himself has admitted that the brand has baggage. It doesn’t stand for value, yet it doesn’t stand for quality, and without a clear proposition we fear that Tesco will continue to lose customers to more relevant and better-defined channels.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has reportedly invested $103 million in its Indian operations with the goals of expanding its wholesale store count and increasing its online presence there. According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart intends to increase wholesale store base in India from the current 20 to 70 in the next five years.

New York -- British retailing giant Tesco Plc on Monday said CEO Philip Clarke would step down in October, to be replaced by 27-year Unilever executive Dave Lewis, with the change effective Oct. 1. Clarke, who has been with Tesco for 40 years, will remain with the retailer until January 2015.

Also on Monday, Tesco said recent sales had been more challenging than anticipated and its profit in the first half of its financial year would be below expectations. It was the second profit warning issued since Clarke took the reins of the company in March 2011.

New York – The 2014 Harris Poll EquiTrend (EQ) study, which measures brand equity for more than 1,500 brands across 170 categories, finds traditional grocery store brands rank highest overall in three of the four regions surveyed. The EQ index examines three key factors of brand equity: familiarity, quality and purchase consideration.

Tewksbury, Mass. – Demoulas Super Markets Inc., parent company of the Market Basket grocery chain, has reportedly fired some employees in the wake of inventory problems during the weekend of July 19-20. According to the Boston Globe, several managers were fired the evening of Sunday, July 20 after the company noticed thinning inventories of perishable items.

Imagine a lifelong Procter & Gamble employee suddenly named CEO of Walmart and that is essentially what happened at leading global retail Tesco where the company has named long time Unilever executive Dave Lewis as its next CEO.