Supermarket/Grocery

Weis Markets cited a shortened holiday season among the reasons for a decline in fourth quarter and year-to-date sales.

The company reported $686.4 million in fourth-quarter sales for the 13-week period ended Dec. 28, 2013, representing a decline of 1.1% as compared to the year-ago period. Comparable store sales for the same period were down 3.5%.

In 2013, the company's sales totaled $2.7 billion, down 0.3% compared to 2012. Comparable store sales for the 52-week period ending Dec. 28 declined 2.6%.

Chicago -- Galleria, a provider of retailer and vendor category management solutions, is expanding into the Asia Pacific region.  This growth is part of an ongoing international program of strategic focus and investment for Galleria.

In addition to navigating the regulatory hurdles and adapting to a difference in consumer culture, recent initiatives from Galleria have included solution developments to facilitate new market connectivity in Hong Kong and other areas within the region.

The next two years will see Kroger elevate the level of competition in north Texas with an ambitious investment program that comes as Walmart accelerates expansion of its smaller format stores.

Sunbury, Pa. – Declining sales across a variety of categories negatively affected year-over-year fiscal performance of Weis Markets Inc. during the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013. Net income declined 29% to $15.7 million from $22.1 million during the quarter, and dropped 13% to $71.7 million from $82.5 million during the year.

New York -- Phoenix-based Sprouts Farmers Markets Inc. is expanding. The natural-foods supermarket chain expects to open 22 to 24 stores in fiscal 2014, including five locations in the Atlanta area.

Sprouts currently operates more than 165 locations in eight states.

Meanwhile, Gap Inc. continues to expand its newest banner, Athleta, with about 30 additional U.S. stores on tap for fiscal year 2014.

In more store expansion news:

Schenectady, N.Y. -- Price Choppers Supermarkets/Golub Corp. has named Ryan C. Hill as VP of construction and engineering. He will be responsible for planning the overall engineering, architectural and construction activities for the 132-store chain.

Hill comes to Price Chopper from Walgreens, where he served as senior director of construction.

Ottawa, Canada -- Well-executed dynamic pricing strategies, such as those deployed by Amazon and Overstock, led to higher sales during the 2013 holiday season as opposed to all-season discounting and other strategies. In its “Retail’s 2013 Holiday Winners and Losers” report, pricing intelligence vendor 360pi rated retailers’ overall financial performance for the 2013 fourth quarter on a scale from +5 (above expectations/excellent) to -5 (below expectations/very poor) based on third-party financial analysts’ overall assessments.