Supermarket/Grocery

NEWBURYPORT, Mass. — Foodservice Industry veteran Mike Pennella has agreed to serve as an adviser to the board Dianne's Fine Desserts' board of directors.

New York -- Canadian grocery giant Loblaw Cos. will test a new retail concept called Nutshell Live Life Well, a freestanding brand targeted to health-conscious shoppers, the Financial Post reported. The move comes as Whole Foods Market eyes greater expansion in Canada.

The first Nutshell will open this fall in downtown Toronto. It will feature a broad assortment of prepared, fresh and packaged foods, a prescription pharmacy, natural health and beauty products, vitamins and supplements.

CHICAGO — Sara Lee Foodservice, a division of the Hillshire Brands Company, has introduced a line of products aimed at the kindergarten-12th grade education sector, focusing on turkey items for both breakfast and lunch.

Additionally, Sara Lee Foodservice will be participating in the United States Department of Agriculture Commodity Food Distribution Program that enables schools to purchase items at reduced prices.

Armonk, N.Y. -- Retailers and CPG companies with leading stock prices are more likely than their lagging competitors to use Big Data analytics to understand and adjust to customer needs. According to a study of 325 senior retail merchandising executives conducted by IBM Center for Applied Insights in conjunction with Planet Retail, 65% of leading retail merchandisers feel Big Data analytics is critical to their business compared to just 38% of other retail companies.

Boston -- A report by the Boston Globe revealed that the fate of Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas lies in the hands of the grocery chain’s board of directors, as members are posted to fire Demoulas at a meeting of the board next week.

A longtime family feud has split the board in two, and both sides of the family-owned Demoulas Super Markets Inc. will face off in a meeting on Thursday, July 18, to determine whether or not Demoulas will be removed from office.

New York -- The London Candy Co. has taken 1,000 sq. ft. on Bleecker Street in Manhattan’s West Village, according to RKF, which brokered the deal.

The new candy and coffee shop will replace the retailer’s existing location at Lexington and East 94th Street.

Cincinnati -- Phillips Edison-ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc. has acquired Boronda Plaza in Salinas, Calif. Food 4 Less, a subsidiary of Kroger, anchors the 93,071-sq.-ft. shopping center, which is 98% occupied.

When combined with the Food 4 Less lease, 68% of the rents for the center derive from national tenants. More information at Phillipsedison-arc.com.
 

London -- Wm Morrison Supermarkets said Thursday it will have the technology systems, online presence and c-store counts by 2015 to significantly close the gap on its closest competitors.

Britain’s No. 4 grocer trails Tesco, Wal-Mart's Asda and J Sainsbury in annual sales. Its CEO Dalton Philips is optimistic about the chain’s ability to compete. “I've only been here three years,” he told Bloomberg. “There was no plan for online, there was no plan for convenience and we had systems, which were 20th century.”