SPAR Ukraine has opened three new SPAR Express stores aimed at meeting the daily shopping needs of customers in the Lviv and Volvn regions.
The delicatessen counters in the stores offer a range of cheese and meat products, complementing the food-to-go offer.
The fresh food selection includes a bakery offering, fresh fruit and vegetables and, in the Zaliznychna Street store, a range of pastries.
As part of their modernisation of the retail offer throughout their stores, SPAR Ukraine is investing in a growing food-to-go selection which is gaining in popularity with customers.
SPAR was launched in Ukraine in 2001 with the opening of the first SPAR Supermarket. Since then, independent retailers have continued to bring the brand to local consumers in a number of cities.
On 1 December 2016, a new licence was granted to Volwest LLC, a prominent retailer with over 200 supermarkets across the country and a strong track record of partnering with independent retailers.
In June 2020 retail trade in Italy continued its recovery after sharp falls due to the pandemic emergency, shows latest Istat data.
However, levels of total sales in the month on month series remained lower than levels recorded at the beginning of 2020, before Covid-19 outbreak. Compared with May 2020, estimates of value grew by 12.1%, while volume of sales rose by 12.5%.
In the second quarter of 2020 the seasonally adjusted index showed a decline, as value of sales decreased by 7.9% and volume dropped by 8.8% compared with the first quarter of 2020.
In June 2020, value and volume of sales contracted in the year on year series by 2.2% and by 3.5% respectively, after a steeper decline reported in April and May 2020.
Comparing with the same month a year earlier, large-scale distribution fell by 1.8%, small-scale distribution decreased by 6.4% and non-store sales was down 5.9%.
Internet sales reached a record 53.5% when compared with June 2019, confirming a shift within the retail trade to online sales.
Looking at the value of sales for non-food products, data outlined a mixed picture across different categories in the year on year series.
Growths were reported for Computers and telecommunications equipment (+15.1%) and Furniture and textile items and household furnishings (+10.4%). The largest drops were reported for Shoes, leather goods and travel items (-12.8%) and Clothing (-12.3%).
After France, Carrefour Belgium will soon be the third country to benefit from Uber Eats partnership: it will be operational in September, with the service being launched in Brussels and Liège.
Belgium will be testing a 30-minute shopping delivery service, as well as meal box solutions.
How Carrefour – Uber Eats partnership started
As of 6 April across the capital and throughout the Paris region, consumers have been able to do their food shopping on Uber Eats.
At the start of lockdown, both brands joined forces to help consumers get hold of everyday products getting them delivered to their home within 30 minutes, dispatched from fifteen or so Carrefour stores.
The service was rolled out to 100 stores at the end of April, then 200 at the start of June and then 300 stores at the start of July.
As of 20 July, the service is now available via 330 sales outlets and covers 91 major urban areas, 25% of the French population.
250 essential everyday items can be delivered
More and more products are being added every week: from the 130 products available at launch, consumers can now choose from more than 250 essential everyday items, with the aim being to increase this to 500 by early September.
Carrefour Market and Carrefour City both feature on the Uber Eats app and other Carrefour Group formats are shortly to be included.
The service, exclusively available outside Paris
Following these promising results, Uber Eats and Carrefour have signed an exclusive agreement to launch a shopping home delivery service for the whole of France. The idea is for shopping to be delivered within 30 minutes using the meal delivery apps available.
Carrefour and Uber Eats both remain free to make use of the agreements they have entered into with other players across the Paris region.
Uber Eats – Carrefour partnership to expand
The partnership with Uber Eats is not limited to France. An initial agreement was signed with Carrefour Taiwan at the end of 2019 covering 8 major urban areas and 38 stores involved in preparing orders.
Other Carrefour Group countries will follow over the next few months.
SPAR has achieved market leadership in Austria’s food retailing sector in the first half of 2020 with an accumulated market share of 34.0%, according to the market research company Nielsen.
In January of this year, before the implementation of COVID-19 shutdown measures, SPAR overtook the competition for the first time in the company’s history.
SPAR Austria increased its market share from 32.1% (2018) to 32.8% (2019) and now holds an outstanding 34.0% as domestic market leader in the first half of 2020.
In the month of June, their market share stood at 34.5%.
SPAR in Austria grew by 4.7% in 2019, more than double the Austrian food retail industry’s estimated growth of 2.1%, according to Nielsen.
Bennet made a major acquisition of Auchan hypermarkets, Giornale di Brescia noted. The company announced the acquisition of 7 Auchan hypermarkets sold by Margherita Distribution S.p.A.
All employees working in the acquired hypermarkets will join Bennet team, which sees the number of employees increase to about 8.000.
The seven hypermarkets are thus distributed:
two in the province of Milan (Cesano Boscone and Nerviano),
two in the province of Brescia (Concesio and Mazzano),
one in the province of Lodi (Codogno),
one in the province of Bergamo (Antegnate)
a superstore in Milan (Avenue Monza).
This brings the total number of hypermarkets and superstores to Bennet to 71.
Carrefour will open its first 6000 sq m hypermarket in the Principality of Andorra on the site of the former Andorra 2000 store.
This will follow the signing of a franchise contract with Carrefour Partenariat International, within the framework of a global agreement with the Pyrénées Group.
The new store will also feature a “Bon Appétit” restaurant area.
The Pyrénées Group will continue to grow over the next two years and is planning to open several stores in Andorra in partnership with the Carrefour Group.
The modern retail stock in Romania, consisting of shopping centers, retail parks and commercial galleries with a leasable area of at least 5.000 square meters, has reached 3.96 million square meters and will exceed the 4 million sq m threshold until the end of the year.
This data are shown in Bucharest Retail Market and Retail Regional Cities reports, made by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.
Bucharest is the biggest retail market in Romania
With a stock of 1.25 million sq. m, consisting of 32 projects with an average leasable area of 39.000 square meters, Bucharest is the largest market.
The city has a population of almost 2.6 million inhabitants according to the latest household population data from the National Institute of Statistics.
The most recent project of the Bucharest – Ilfov region stock is DN1 Value Center, completed at the end of last year by Prime Kapital and MAS Real Estate within Baloteşti.
With a leasable area of 27,000 sqm, DN1 Value Center has approved the creation of a new retail park with an area of almost 47,000 sqm, which also includes two units owned and operated by the German groups Hornbach and Lidl.
The retail stock in Bucharest is comparable in size to that of the Center – West region of the country (1.33 million sq m) and twice as large as that of the East – Moldova region (595,000 sq m).
At a city level, the most developed markets in terms of stock of modern commercial spaces are Timişoara (254,000 sqm), Constanţa (211,000 sqm) and Oradea (199,000 sqm).
Covid-19 postponed some shopping centers opening
In this context, the developers also postponed the opening schedule for new shopping centers, the most important inaugurations in the first part of the year being Shopping City Targu Mures commercial center, made by NEPI Rockcastle, and NEST Miercurea Ciuc retail park, developed by RC Invest.
In the second half of the year, the most important inaugurations are expected in Brasov, where AFI Europe will open the third shopping center of the company on the local market, but also in Târgovişte, where Prime Kapital will open the first shopping center in the city.
As for Bucharest, the first new commercial spaces are expected in 2021, when the extension of Colosseum commercial center in the northwest part of the city will be inaugurated, while the Belgian group Liebrecht & wooD will open the first stage of Fashion House Cernica Village, the second outlet center in Bucharest and in the country.
Retail projects delivered between S2 2019 – S1 2020
Project
Leasable surface (sq.m)
Developer
Inauguration
Shopping City Târgu Mureş
40,000
NEPI Rockcastle
T2 2020 – T3 2020
NEST Miercurea Ciuc
12,000
RC Invest
T2 2020
DN1 Value Center Baloteşti
27,000
Prime Kapital
T4 2019
Promenada Mall Sibiu
42,000
NEPI Rockcastle
T4 2019
Source: Cushman & Wakefield Echinox
Retail projects with scheduled delivery between S2 2020 – 2021
Interspar is the first major food retailer in Austria to offer filling stations for unpackaged and loose organic food products, such as cereals, nuts, and pulses as well as pasta, rice, and dried fruit.
A large selection of these products is part of the SPAR Natur*pur range, the largest organic brand in Austria. Products sourced from local suppliers complement the range.
How it works
At the filling stations, customers can use a free INTERSPAR paper bag or a container they bring to the store or purchase instore. The filling station is currently being tested at the Interspar Hypermarket Salzburg-Europark.
Customers can use their own containers by weighing them before filling with products.
The filling station at the Interspar Hypermarket Salzburg was produced by HL Display, a global supplier of products and solutions that create a better shopping experience.
The innovative filling station differs from traditional systems as the bins are filled from the top but emptied from the bottom, and this ‘first in- first out’ system ensures an optimal shelf life of the food products.
In January, Interspar started to trial filling stations for bio-certified laundry and dishwashing detergents in selected hypermarkets in Salzburg and Vienna. The filling stations are continuously adapted and improved according to customer needs.
Already over 40% percent of the fruit and vegetable range at SPAR and Interspar stores in Austria is unpacked. Customers can purchase reusable produce bags instore or make use of paper bags or free organic bags made from renewable raw materials.
SPAR and Interspar stores offer the largest range of beverages in reusable bottles in Austria
In March 2020, SPAR Austria started to sell SPAR Natur*pur organic farm milk in a reusable glass bottle. In April, various SPAR Own Brand beverages in an eco-friendly 1l reusable glass bottles were introduced..
To make products that are plastic-free or contain less plastic easily recognisable, many products are labelled with the logo ”Saving plastic together with SPAR”.
Maiora, SPAR Italy Partner for the Centre and South of Italy, has opened a new Interspar Hypermarket and two new Eurospar Supermarkets in Abruzzo.
The modern Interspar and Eurospar stores are located respectively in Silvi Marina, Pescara and Montesilvano.
The opening of these stores is part of Maiora’s strategy to expand the SPAR Brand’s footprint into the Abruzzo region, located above the ‘heel’ of the Italian peninsula. The Eurospar Supermarket in Pescara, operated by an independent retailer, was converted from an existing brand. All of the previous store employees have been hired to run the new store.
Maiora opened the new Interspar Hypermarket in Silvi Marina, a coastal town near Teramo, just two weeks after opening the new Eurospar Supermarket in Pescara.
More openings are scheduled to take place from September, adding to the 32 SPAR stores already operating in the Abruzzo region.
The new Eurospar Supermarket in Pescara follows the opening of another new Interspar Hypermarket in Scalea just one month ago, which was successfully completed during the lockdown.
Within its 2019-2021 business development plan, DESPAR Maiora is investing an additional €70 million in its retail store portfolio, aimed at renovating 20 more stores and developing six new stores.
The company’s turnover of €805,5 million, with a strong growth of €30 million in 2019, is set to reach the €1 billion milestone by the end of this year.
LPP has launched a Fulfilment Enter-type warehouse in Slovakia as part of its e-commerce channel development strategy, to support online sales on Central European markets.
The warehouse located in PNK Park Sered was originally to cover 25.000 m2 of industrial space with an option to expand it by another 7.000 m2 over the next three years.
The decision to open a warehouse in Slovakia is part of the company’s strategy for the development of its international distribution network.
The building has been divided into two parts, the first one with an area of 17,000 m2 is mostly dedicated to manual operations.
The second part (15,000 m2) is dedicated to automatic solutions and cross-dock operations of goods intended for the stores chain. It has also been equipped with high storage racks for e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores from the Central Europe region.
The total storage area for this purpose includes as many as 2040 pallet spaces. Despite the relatively short time that has passed since the launch of the facility, the maximum number of products that entered and left the warehouse in one day has reached 152,000.
The investment makes it possible to offer all customers of LPP brands from the Central European region the next business day delivery, and in some locations even the same day delivery.
SPAR Hungary has recently expanded the catchment area of its e-grocery platform to the INTERSPAR Hypermarket Tatabánya, in the Northwest of Hungary, as well as nine communities around the popular holiday destination Lake Velence.
Launched in May 2019, SPAR Hungary’s e-grocery home delivery and drive-in service initially covered the capital city, Budapest, and 49 surrounding municipalities.
The online shop provides the same extensive range of 20.000 products at the same price as any INTERSPAR Hypermarket in the country.
Customers can receive their groceries during 2-hour time slots six days a week, from Monday to Friday between 10 am and 8 pm, and on Saturday between 10 am and 6 pm. A novelty in Tatabánya is that orders placed before 10 AM are delivered on the same day after 2 pm.
SPAR has launched a new campaign promising customers that if there is a delay in the delivery of their groceries, even by just one minute, customers will receive a coupon worth HUF 1,000 (almost €3,00) as a compensation for any inconvenience caused.
This campaign will last until the end of this month.
Following the success of the test launched a year ago in Ukraine, Auchan and Glovo have decided to enter into a strategic partnership in four European countries (Spain, Portugal, Poland and Ukraine).
This partnership will allow Auchan to accelerate their digital outreach and food e-commerce policies for the benefit of customers in these countries, and enable Glovo to strengthen its position as the local leader in home delivery.
Both partners are leaving the door open to expand their partnership to other countries, depending on future opportunities.
The partnership was launched in Ukraine in May 2019 with 20 stores and in Portugal in April 2020 with 1 store in Lisbon.
