News

Retail and consumer goods industry news

19 October 2023
Canada’s leading retailer, Loblaw, has developed its own protected gateway, enabling it to leverage the capabilities of generative AI. Text and image generation Garfield has been developed to allow the retailer’s colleagues to interact with Large Language Models (LLMs) in a safe and secure environment. The retailer wanted to leverage the potential of new and emerging LLMs such as ChatGPT an...
18 October 2023
Sainsbury's and Greggs have taken another step forward in their partnership with the first Greggs café officially opening in a Sainsbury’s store. The café situated in Sheffield Sainsbury’s is the 3 rd partnership site between the two retailers and follows on from sites opened earlier this year in a petrol forecourt and a retail park. The café will be open 7am-7pm Monday to Saturday and 10a...
18 October 2023
Waitrose is reworking aspects of its loyalty scheme to make offers more relevant and personalised to its customers. As revealed by The Grocer, the changes come into effect today following complaints from its loyalty scheme members since the initial launch last year. The changes will see the timeframe used to determine the most relevant offers for customers extended from 4 weeks to 52 weeks....
18 October 2023
We highlight seven takeaways from our recent trip to the Warsaw. Auchan takes on Zabka with its first autonomous store Auchan has teamed up with Israel based tech company Trigo to produce the retailer’s first autonomous store, Auchan Go. The store combines camera technology and scales integrated into the shelving to monitor items selected by shoppers, after they have authorised a payment...
16 October 2023
On 27th and 28th September manufacturers, operators, retailers and wholesalers gathered at London’s Excel for the annual Lunch! and Casual Dining shows.  IGD gave three keynote presentations at the shows: Inspiration from the world of eating out – a look at the trends driving eating out and how to win, illustrated with 20 innovative examples of best practice from around the world Food...
16 October 2023
Tracking the performance of the eating out industry can be challenging due to the numerous factors that influence its operation. It's not easy to determine how these factors will eventually impact operator and supplier performance and overall profitability.  In  our latest report, Eating out: H1 review and expectations for the rest of 2023 (full version available to Retail Analysis subscriber...
16 October 2023
Since the start of the pandemic and throughout the subsequent period of high inflation, many US consumers turned to the discount channel in pursuit of value. This has led to a period of evolution for dollar stores and discounters. In this article we focus on the movements of three; Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Grocery Outlet, covering how they’ve evolved and why retailers and CPGs should take ...
16 October 2023
Being prepared for future eventualities is of critical importance for any business. However, with so much disruption and uncertainty taking place globally it is understandable that businesses are focused on the next quarter or at most the next few years. Nevertheless, success will be achieved through thought leadership that comes from being visionary, and to be truly visionary you need to b...
13 October 2023
With meat consumption on the decline, I look at plant-based developments in Germany. Steady decline in consumption continues Meat consumption in the German market has been falling for several years and 2022 saw record lows. The Federal Statistics Office reporting a decline in slaughterhouse production of 5.9% in the first half of 2023, showing the decline in consumption will continue. Re...
13 October 2023
Following news of its plan to expand its fashion offer , Sainsbury’s has begun trialling its fashion hub concept. The retailer’s London Colney superstore is one of the nine trial sites. I stopped by earlier this week for a first look at Sainsbury’s vision for growing its branded proposition at pace. Fashion takes pride of place at the store entrance Upon entering the store the fashion hu...