12/10/21: Global Convenience Store Focus Covid-19 disrupted the Swiss retail market creating winners and losers in all channels and it’s unlikely things will fully return to pre-pandemic ways. That’s according to Marco Fuhrer, managing partner at consulting and marketing research company, Fuhrer & Hotz, and the NACS relationship partner for Switzerland. Fuhrer has an expert viewpoint. Fuhrer & Hotz specialises in market research and specifically customer journeys and shopper behaviour across a host of retail sectors including convenience retail. The consultancy also produces regular studies exploring key developments in retail including Convenience Switzerland 2021 and the Petrol Station Shop Report Switzerland 2021/2022, produced in association with the VTSS (the association of gas station shop owners in Switzerland) and supported by NACS. Further, Fuhrer & Hotz through its Swiss Marketing Forum brand has recently hosted the Swiss Convenience Retail Day 2021, a ‘real life’ event hosted in Zurich, featuring a raft of top convenience and forecourt retailers…

18/10/21: The Grocer Source: Asda Asda on the Move in Beaconsfield is the first to trial a ‘premium format’ Asda has opened its first ‘Extra Special’ convenience store, offerings its premium ranges on an EG forecourt. The store in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, stocks over 2,500 products including Asda’s ‘Extra Special’ fresh and chilled ranges plus ready meals and beers, wines and spirits. It also sells a range of meals created by celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo – which switched from Iceland to Asda earlier this year – including his ‘Mamma’s’ lasagne. It is one of four ‘Asda on the Move’ stores that opened on EG forecourts on Friday, ahead of a planned wider rollout announced in September. The first three AOTMs opened in the Midlands in October, and the rollout is due to see 28 more in the coming months and 200 in 2022. The aim is to bring Asda products to “new customers in…

04/10/21: Auror Media Release Two of Australia’s largest retailers are breathing a sigh of relief as one of their most prolific and aggressive shoplifters has been arrested, this time without bail. For more than 20 years, this person, who was dubbed “South Australia’s most wanted shoplifter”, regularly stole from these retailers, causing a huge amount of loss. On top of that, this person was often threatening towards store staff on countless occasions.  Despite law enforcement arresting this person multiple times in the past, the charges only reflected a fraction of their activity and they were always “picked up and back on the street the next day”. But that all changed once the retailers switched to Auror’s Crime Intelligence Platform. Together they recorded more than 160 events totalling over AUD$125,600 that this person was involved with. Most of the events were for shoplifting, with values ranging mostly from $200 to $1500+. Utilising intelligent case management,…

12/10/21: The Driven VOLVO XC40 RECHARGE. SOURCE: VOLVO The Volvo XC40 Recharge shot to the top of electric car sales in September, accounting for one in three XC40 SUVs sold by the Swedish-Chinese carmaker and 21% of all its sales for the month. The XC40 Recharge, which was recently launched by Volvo in Australia and is joined by a plug-in hybrid and a mild hybrid variant. Volvo tells The Driven that out of the 360 XC40s sold last month, 131 were of the all-electric version, which has a starting price of $76,990 before on-roads, and offers up to 425km driving range (WLTP) from its 72.5kWh battery, 300kw maximum power and 660Nm maximum torque. The stunning results means that the Volvo XC40 Recharge claims the top spot for monthly (non-Tesla) electric car sales in Australia, and only just missing the record for launch month sales set by the MG ZS EV…

13/10/21: AFR Up to $3 billion in incentives will be on offer from the NSW government as part of a new strategy for hydrogen in the state that the government expects will help attract more than $80 billion of investment in clean energy by 2050. Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean said the strategy, which is primarily aimed at renewables-based hydrogen, would set NSW up as a global leader in the fuel and is expected to grow the size of the state’s economy by more than $600 million by 2030. NSW Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean wants to develop a world-leading hydrogen industry in the state.  It is forecast to more than halve the cost of green hydrogen production in NSW and support the $70 million development of hydrogen hubs in the Illawarra and Hunter regions, providing clean fuels for industry coming under intense pressure to decarbonise. Hydrogen projects…

15/10/21: 7-Eleven Media Release 7-Eleven Australia is encouraging its more than 8,000 strong team to participate in mental health organisation ReachOut’s Make a Move this October.  ReachOut is the most accessed online mental health service for young people and those that care for them in Australia. So far this year, more than 880,000 people from NSW and over 380,000 people from QLD have accessed ReachOut’s services.  According to 7-Eleven Australia CEO and Managing Director, Angus McKay, mental health is a critical part of workplace health and safety, and the impacts of the past two years mean a focus on mental health is vital for everyone. “By working directly with our charity partner ReachOut we hope to make a real difference to not only the wellbeing of our team but the young people that ReachOut supports. When you see the figures around the need for mental health services in this country…