Posts by theo.foukkare@bigpond.com

Deal will allow EG Group to expand further in U.S., other markets, it says In a deal combining two major U.K. grocery and convenience retailers, EG Group has agreed to sell the majority of its U.K. and Ireland fuel foodservice, grocery and merchandise business to Asda for an enterprise value of $2.82 billion. Blackburn, U.K.-based EG Group, which owns the Cumberland Farms and other U.S. convenience-store chains, as well as additional chains globally, will continue to operate separately in the United States, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium. EG Group will use the proceeds of this transaction, together with the net proceeds of $1.4 billion from the recent sale-leaseback transaction involving Cumberland Farms in the United States, to repay debt in line with its financial policy and deleveraging strategy, it said. Mohsin and Zuber Issa, founders and co-CEOs of EG Group, also own Asda. They began exploring a combination of the two…

Dive Brief: Dive Insight: With the technology from Cooler Screens, Kroger is looking to unlock more insights, measurement and activation by tying the smart screens to its retail media arm.  Cooler Screens’ solution, which works with new or existing digital screens, uses the displays to showcase advertisements and product information, allowing shoppers to interact with digital merchandising. Cooler Screens, which initially focused on cooler doors, recently expanded the types of surfaces that can support its technology as it looks to harness increasing interest by grocers on retail media networks and in-store digitization. In addition to coolers, retailers can place the equipment on surfaces including walls, end caps and windows, as well as at checkout lanes and in banner aisles. The announcement did not specify which surfaces Kroger plans to use for the new screens.  The announcement from Cooler Screens noted that the partnership helps Kroger customers make purchasing decisions based on their own…

Global plugin vehicle registrations were up 28% in March 2023 compared to March 2022. There were 1,097,000 registrations, making it the second-best month ever for plugin electric vehicles, only behind December 2022. In the end, plugins represented 16% share of the overall auto market (12% BEV share alone). This means that the global automotive market is in the Electric Disruption Zone. Interestingly, plugless hybrids also surpassed the 1 million mark in March, rising to 1,004,000 units. This is the first time they managed to do so, which means that in total, over two million units in March, or 31% of the global market, had some form of electrification. Year to date, plugin electric vehicle market share grew slightly to 13% (9% BEV). Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) represented 72% of plugin registrations in March, pulling up its year-to-date tally by two percentage points to 68% share. 20 Best Selling EV Models in the World…

Failed Sydney-based fast delivery grocery start-up Milkrun will reemerge as part of Woolworths, after the supermarket giant acquired the brand and operating entity in a deal thought to be worth about $10 million. The collapse of Milkrun in April, which resulted in all of its staff being made redundant, was the biggest scalp from the downturn in private tech investment markets globally, and came after it banked $86 million in venture capital funding in less than two years of operation. Milkrun founder Dany Milham said he was happy the Milkrun brand would continue. Josh Robenstone Rather than operate Milkrun the way it did before its collapse, from a network of “dark stores”, Woolworths will simply rebadge its existing Metro60 faster delivery service. Orders will be fulfilled via the current Metro60 model, which uses third-party couriers and claims an average delivery time of 33 minutes. A social media post on Wednesday evening hinted at Milkrun’s…