January 22 – Kaufland to Exit Australia
Schwarz Group’s Kaufland, with about current 200 employees in Australia and a plan to open 14 stores in Victoria and land purchased in other sites has decided to pull out of the country, indicating that it will continue to focus on core markets in Europe. From Yahoo Finance

January 22 – Amazon Australia Launches New Delivery Service
Amazon Australia has launched Flex delivery in Sydney and Melbourne, a service that offers individuals the opportunity to earn extra money delivering Amazon packages to customers. Amazon Flex enables Amazon to expand its delivery network and speed up deliveries. From Amazon.com.au

January 21 – Spain’s Glovo to Exit Several Markets
Spain’s food delivery company, Glovo, has announced that it will exit Turkey, Egypt, Uruguay and Puerto Rico, leaving the company active in 22 markets.  Glovo will put their primary focus on South America, South West Europe, Eastern Europe and Africa. From TechCrunch

January 21 – Amazon Begins Localized Payments in Chile
Amazon has partnered with fintech company, dLocal, to enable Chilean customers to shop on Amazon.com using international and domestic credit cards.  This partnership will allow customers in Chile to access interest-free financing and other Amazon services in Chilean Pesos. From Business Wire

January 21 – India’s Reliance Retail Setting Up Small Stores
With the intention of using new stores for last-mile delivery, Reliance plans to open thousands of Reliance Smart Points stores.  These stores will have a footprint of 500 – 1500 square feet and are planned to begin opening in the next several months. From ET Retail

January 20 – Carrefour Acquires Fresh Box Delivery Service
France’s Carrefour has announced the acquisition of Potager City, a start-up distributor of online subscription-based boxes fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables sourced from 750 producers and growers. From Business Wire

January 20 – Auchan Launches Pick-Up Point Format in Ukraine 
Auchan has launched its first Pick Up Point format in Kiev.  This area covers 40 square meters and offers about 600 products and has tablets for online ordering of goods from Auchan stores and pick up zone for collection of orders placed on auchan.ua and auchan.zakaz.ua. Article in Russian. From BZH Life

January 20 – India’s Future Group Scales Down Ecommerce
Future Group has scaled down its ecommerce venture, Retail 3.0, and laid off 350-400 employees. Layoffs were across roles in sales, product development, marketing and ground operations and have been taking place over the last several months. In addition, Future Group recently shuttered many of its EasyDay stores due to lack of traction for its EasyDay app. From Live Mint

January 17 – Migros Shows Positive Growth
Switzerland’s  Migros Group grew significantly in the areas of online, discount and convenience in the 2019 financial year. The consolidated sales of the Migros Group reached CHF28.66 billion, representing growth of 0.7% compared to the previous year. Total online sales grew significantly by 9.9% to CHF2.29 billion. Article in German. From Migros

January 16 – Lidl Opens Zero Emissions Store 
German retailer, Lidl, has opened its first net zero emissions store in the Netherlands.  The goal is for this pilot store to be one of many that benefits from producing 100% of the store’s energy using a solar system.  From ReNewsBiz

January 16 – Groupe Casino’s Same-Store Sales Increase
Groupe Casino has reported full-year 2019 net sales of EUR34.6 billion, up 4.2% organically and 2.2% on a same-store basis. In Q4 2019 net sales were at EUR9.2 billion up 3.6% on an organic basis and 1.6% on a same-store basis. Contributing to these results are stable same-store net sales in France and strong organic growth in LatAm (9.2%). From Groupe Casino

January 15 – Kesko Reports 3.3% Sales Growth in December
Finland’s Kesko reported an increase in sales by 3.3% in December, boosted by car trade and building and technical trade. Grocery sales in December saw an increase of 0.3%. The Christmas season boosted food sales, while sales declined in the home and specialty goods. Sales in Finland grew by 6.4% and sales in Kesko’s other markets (Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Belarus) grew by 2.7%. From Kesko

January 15 – Amazon Announces Plans for Amazon.nl
Amazon has announced plans to develop Amazon.nl by offering physical product categories to Dutch customers later in 2020. Amazon has launched the ability for customers in the Netherlands and to create their accounts in preparation for the online giant’s launch in the country. Article in French. From About Amazon

January 15 – Walmart Seiyu and Japanese Online Retailer to Open New Logistics Site
Japanese online retailer, Rakuten and Walmart’s Seiyu are planning to open a new logistics site in Yokohama later in 2020 to manage the increasing sales from their joint online supermarket business. Sales between late October through the end of December 2019 rose 30% from a year earlier, the companies said in a joint statement. From Reuters

January 15 – Spar Expands in Spain

In the last quarter of 2019, Spar has opened a number of new stores and has undertaken renovations undertaken with its partners, Lider Aliment, Fragadis, Grupo Upper, and Agrucan. The new stores will strengthen the retailer’s position in the Spanish market, adding approximately 3,600 square meters of retail space in different regions across the country. From European Supermarket Magazine

January 14 – Auchan to Cut More than 500 Jobs in France
Auchan has announced a plan to cute more than 500 jobs in France as part in an effort to cut costs to manage competition with online retailers such as Amazon. Unlisted Auchan Retail, the retail arm of the Auchan group, announced that the company will have a greater focus on ecommerce and local products. Auchan employs approximately 75,000 people in France. From European Supermarket Magazine