How Aldi is about to overtake Waitrose and become the sixth largest supermarket in Britain July 29, 2014 Aldi and Lidl continue to win in the battle of the supermarkets as their market share surged and sale rise, leaving the big four- Tesco, Asda, Sinasbury's and Morrisons- trailing behind. Aldi’s stellar performance places it almost level with Waitrose as the big four continue to feel the pressure from discounters. The latest figures from [...]
Supermarket price wars: Money can’t buy me love…or can it? July 24, 2014 As another CEO falls on his multi-million pound sword this week; the convenient simplification of the problem into pricing and the rampant value-retailer onslaught seems to deliver a somewhat myopic view of the task facing the brooding monoliths that are the big retailers. While Mr. Clarke was seemingly handed a metaphorical deuce to seven [...]
Tesco to splash £11m on Dave Lewis and Philip Clarke rescue operation July 21, 2014 Tesco will spend more than £1.8m on its new chief executive Dave Lewis but up to £9.6m on departing boss Philip Clarke as the supermarket puts its faith in the industry outsider to turn its sales around. Clarke’s shock departure and his replacement with Unilever’s president of personal care, who will start in October, comes [...]
Karl Albrecht obituary: Aldi co-founder dies aged 94 July 21, 2014 Karl Albrecht, the billionaire co-founder of the Aldi discount supermarket chain, died on Wednesday 16th July, aged 94. The growth of Aldi, the name of which is a contraction of Albrecht Discount, made Karl Germany’s richest man, and 24th richest in the world, with an estimated fortune of $25.9bn (£15.2bn), according to Forbes. Karl, who [...]
Dave Lewis: Tesco banks on first outsider in its 95-year history. Will he make a difference? July 21, 2014 Tesco’ incoming boss Dave Lewis will have no easy task on his hands when he takes the reins at the UK’s biggest retailer and the world’s third largest chain in October. But while he lacks the Tesco genes that Philip Clarke had from spending 39 years at the grocer, Lewis makes up for it in [...]
Too big to succeed? How Tesco’s new leader can take on the toxic retailer July 21, 2014 The last-minute cancellation of his “40 years at Tesco” party suggests that Philip Clarke’s departure came as a big surprise. But in truth, his future at Tesco had been looking increasingly bleak for months. The man himself conceded as much in March, with his surprise statement at a conference that his days as chief executive [...]
Brand Index: Discounters’ customers force top shops to up their game July 16, 2014 For consumers, every little helps, and the tills at Aldi and Lidl are ringing as the German discounters attract new and unlikely customers. YouGov’s mid-year BrandIndex’s Buzz rankings show that Aldi tops the list with Lidl coming in fourth, as consumers keep buying habits forged in the downturn. In our Buzz Metric, a measure of [...]
Toblerone and Red Bull a hit for Poundland in Spanish Dealz shop July 3, 2014 Poundland chief executive Jim McCarthy said yesterday its Dealz chain “could be bigger” in Europe than its sister chain in the UK, after kicking off its expansion by opening its first store in Spain on Wednesday. The company, which reported a 23.5 per cent jump in annual profits yesterday, said 2,700 people came [...]
Asda to cut 1,360 jobs in management restructure July 3, 2014 Asda has announced that it will be making 1,360 employees redundant over the next three months. The supermarket chain, which is owned by US-based Walmart, had previously said that there would be job losses but did not confirm the number until now. The cuts are being made to help create more flexible management structures across [...]
Morrisons and Tesco lose grip on market share and sales July 1, 2014 Morrisons and Tesco have both suffered another heavy fall in sales and market share in the last 12 weeks despite efforts to slash prices and win customers back into their stores. Data released yesterday from Kantar Worldpanel showed that overall grocery market grew by 2.8 per cent year-on-year in the 12 weeks to 22 June, [...]