All articles by Planet Retail – Page 71
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News
Lotte acquires GS stores
Local player Lotte Shopping has acquired the GS Mart hypermarkets and GS Square department store operations from GS Retail in South Korea.The deal, valued at about £700m, includes three department stores and 14 hypermarkets and will help Lotte Shopping close the gap on market leaders Shinsegae, which runs the E-mart ...
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Fast Retailing to raise £6.9bn
Fast Retailing chairman and chief executive Tadashi Yanai has revealed the company plans to raise a ¥1 trillion (£6.9bn) war chest to back its bid to become the world’s leading global clothing retailer.He said that acquisitions would be necessary, particularly in the US and Europe, to reach that goal. “We ...
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Cencosud sales down 11% to £6bn
Chilean retail conglomerate Cencosud reported an 11% decrease in net sales to CLP5.33 trillion (£6bn) in 2009, while net profit dropped 38% compared with the previous year to CLP96bn (£108m).The retailer, which runs fascias including hypermarket chain Jumbo, attributed its drop in sales and profit to an unfavourable exchange rate, ...
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Shoprite to sell Indian operations to Future Group
Shoprite is preparing to sell its operations in India to Future Group, according to unconfirmed reports in the local media.It has been rumoured that Future Group is ready to buy the Shoprite store in Mumbai, and take on the employees there.Shoprite has reportedly called off its franchisee deal with Indian ...
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Lowe’s opens first store in Mexico
US-based home improvement chain Lowe’s has opened its first store in Mexico, in the northern industrial city of Monterrey.The retailer has made a $100m (£61.6m) investment in the Latin American country and plans to open five stores in the Monterrey area over the next few years.
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Mobile phone retailer Svyaznoy to offer financial services
Local mobile phone retailer Svyaznoy is to offer financial services in its stores following the chain’s merger with Russian bank Promtorgbank. 100% of Svyaznoy securities and an 87% stake in Promtorgbank will be assigned to a new company. Svyaznoy owner and founder Maksim Nogotkov will retain a controlling stake in ...
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Sales rise at LVMH’s Selective Distribution
LVMH has reported a 4% year-on-year rise in sales at its Selective Distribution business, which includes Sephora and DFS, its luxury duty free arm, to €4.38bn (£3.9bn).Profit from recurring operations was flat at €388m (£349m). LVMH said: “Sephora had a good year with further growth in revenue and profit from ...
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Carrefour likely to sell Moscow leasing rights
Carrefour is likely to sell its Moscow leasing rights to Auchan and OBI, according to Reuters.Carrefour, the world’s biggest retailer, has failed to find one single buyer for all of its three hypermarkets in Russia.
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Mercadona to test Wincor Nixdorf automated checkout
Mercadona will be the first retailer to test Wincor Nixdorf’s new prototype of a fully automated checkout in the retailer’s laboratory later this month.According to Wincor Nixdorf, the new prototype for an automated checkout will for the first time make it possible to accurately read more than 95% of the ...
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Movie Gallery to close 805 stores
Film rental chain Movie Gallery plans to close 805 poorly performing US stores after falling sales and mounting losses led to its second bankruptcy in three years.The closures affect a third of the retailer’s 2,415 US stores and several thousand of the company’s 19,100 employees are likely to lose their ...
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Dollar General to open 600 stores this year
Fixed-price retailer Dollar General is gunning to open a further 600 stores over the next 12 months, creating about 5,000 jobs. The 5,000 anticipated new jobs come on the heels of about 4,000 jobs created by Dollar General in 2009, according to the retailer.Meanwhile, Dollar Tree reported record net sales ...
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Walmart cuts 300 head office jobs
Walmart is to cut 300 jobs at its headquarters in Arkansas as chief executive Mike Duke attempts to cut costs and make the retailer more efficient.In a memo sent to employees, Duke said managers were asked to look for opportunities to eliminate duplication and reduce costs when deciding which jobs ...
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Pantaloon Retail reports profits
Pantaloon Retail reported INR500.7m (£6.8m) net profit for the second quarter ended December 2009, a 51.1% increase on the previous year.Income from operations stood at INR19.13bn (£258.9m), a 25.4% jump.
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Système U widens its network
Système U president Serge Papin told French trade magazine LSA that 2009 was one of the best years for the group, with the retailer adding 1.6 million sq ft to its network.Net sales were up 3.3% (excluding fuel) to E14.5bn (£12.66bn). Papin claimed that the company was the only retailer ...
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Lotte Shopping gross sales increase
Department store and hypermarket operator Lotte Shopping has reported a 12.1% increase in gross sales to KRW3.4 trillion (£1.83bn) during its fourth quarter.Operating profit rose 22.2% to KRW260bn (£139.5m). Pre-tax profit was up 17.9% to KRW249bn (£133.6m).
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Retail sales down in Japan
Retail sales fell 0.3% in December from a year earlier, as consumers sought out cheap goods while employment conditions remained unstable.The figure declined for the 16th month in a row, data released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed. Sales at department stores, grocery stores and book stores ...
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Venezuelan government might enter a partnership with casino
President Hugo Chavez said he is considering an offer for his government to enter a partnership with French retailer Casino, whose chain of Exito hypermarkets were expropriated earlier this month for allegedly exploiting a currency devaluation to raise prices.Chavez said representatives of the French group “calmly came to talk” with ...
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Metro Canada sales increase
Metro Canada has announced that sales increased 1.7% to CAD2.65bn (£1.56bn) in the first quarter of the year. The rise was achieved despite a slight drop in basket value and tough comparatives last year, when high food price inflation and the temporary closing of several stores of a competitor had ...
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Supermarket sales up in Brazil
Supermarket sales in Brazil rose 5.5% in 2009 on the year before, according to the Brazilian Supermarket Association (ABRAS).The increase was attributed to the rising spending power of low-income groups in the country, which was bolstered by tax cuts on a range of products, including domestic appliances.ABRAS is expecting growth ...
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Woolworths Australian sales up
Woolworths reported Aus$27.2bn (£15.17bn) sales for its first half ended January 3, a 6% increase (excluding petrol sales) on the same period last year.The company said its Australian food and liquor sales for the period were Aus$18.1bn (£10.1bn), a 6.8% increase. Woolworths chief executive Michael Luscombe said supermarkets achieved solid ...