Supermarket/Grocery

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kroger's mid-south division president John Hackett is retiring, after 50 years of service with the company. Hackett began his career with Kroger in 1963 as a store clerk in London, Ohio, while working his way through college at The Ohio State University.

New York -- A Reuters report citing unnamed sources said that Belgian grocer Delhaize is looking to sell its U.S.-based Sweetbay and Harveys units as the Food Lion parent looks to ramp up cost-cutting efforts here.

The sources told Reuters that Delhaize has retained Lazard Ltd. to sell off the two supermarket businesses. CEO Pierre-Olivier Beckers said the company was looking at options for the units, but didn’t comment directly on whether advisors had been appointed to conduct the sale.

Chicago -- Leading retailers are much better than other retailers at collecting data, measuring activities, acting on their insights, and measuring again to see the results, according to A.T. Kearney’s 2013 Achieving Excellence in Retail Operations (AERO) Study.

CAMDEN, N.J. — Campbell Soup Company has entered into an agreement to acquire Plum Organics, a provider of premium, organic foods and snacks that serve the nutritional needs of babies, toddlers and children. 

The company is based in Emeryville, Calif. Plum is the No. 2 brand of organic baby food in the U.S. and is currently the No. 4 baby food brand overall. Baby food is an approximately $2 billion category in the United States. From 2010 to 2012, the premium and organic segments grew at an average annual rate of 43%.

“One of the strange ironies of the 2013 convention is that — despite more bookings, a sold-out convention and more activity than we’ve seen in years — the convention doesn’t feel as busy as it has in years past. I suspect this is largely because three of the biggest names in the industry, Macerich, Simon, and Westfield, don’t have booths at the convention center this year. Make no mistake, they are still here in Vegas — they have just moved over to Caesar’s Palace.

MINNEAPOLIS — Colder weather and more conservative shoppers contributed to a drop in Target's first quarter 2013 profits, but the company's underlying business remains healthy, executives said Wednesday morning in a conference call with investors.

"While we are not satisfied with this quarter's performance, we remain highly confident in our strategy," president, chairman and CEO Gregg Steinhafel said during the call.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dannon is leveraging IBM's cloud-based predictive analytics in an attempt claim the number one spot, currently held by Chobani, in the $7 billion U.S. yogurt market. 

REDLANDS, Calif. -- Esri announces that Carrefour Group, the second-largest retailer in the world with nearly 10,000 stores around the globe, has implemented an enterprise-wide marketing solution from Esri partner Galigeo.