Elsevier Food International

Volume 7, No. 4 November 2004

Market Vision
Over 15 thousand stores in 34 countries worldwide are branded Spar, making Spar the world’s largest banner of independent retailers. In 2003, Spar realised total sales of some €27 billion. According to Gordon Campbell, managing director of Spar International, this is the result of constantly trying to raise the bar in retail excellence.

Spar: International and Independent

EFI Special
Today’s customers want tailored solutions to their problems and needs. For the food industry, traditionally good at mass production, this is easier said than done. The question is how to turn customer data into profit.

Restructing the innovation web

ECR
The development and implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has its own pace and peculiarities in different regions throughout the world. Companies worldwide know what potential benefits large-scale use of this technology can bring but there is still a long way to go, turning promises into performance.

From promise to performance

Country Profile
Wal-Mart’s constructing a store in Teotihuacan, one of Mexico’s main archaeological sites, demonstrates the massive impact of the US retailer on the Mexican market. Close to the ancient pyramids, near the site called by the Aztecs ‘The place where men became Gods’, a 71,902 squarefoot store with a 236-space car park is being built. A controversial addition to this historicallandscape.

Mexico: Consolidate or die

Food Watch
To Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) companies the retail sector has been the fair-haired child in recent years. With consolidation sweeping the US shopping mall industry, top mall developers are now setting their sights across the Atlantic in countries like Spain and Italy and, perhaps, in the future even to central and eastern Europe.

The mall makers beyond retail therapy

Food Buying
Competition authorities are up in arms whenever retailers actively share and compare purchasing conditions. Via their joint venture International Retail and Trade Services (IRTS), French retailers Auchan and Casino try to bypass this. IRTS compares conditions but says it works as a black box: no information is shared with its members. Suppliers, however, see IRTS as Pandora’s box and blame competition authorities for not taking action.

IRTS: black box or Pandora’s box

Instore
There is an old saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. This axiom has never been closer to the truth, with the cost of landfill continuing to escalate, government regulations getting tighter and environmental groups gaining power.

Efficient waste management

Whoever coined the phrase that crime doesn’t pay obviously never looked at the statistics on retail theft, which is costing the industry billions of euros annually.

Employee theft on the rise

Fresh Foods
Poultry consumption continues to increase worldwide, benefiting from its lower price in comparison to red meat, and the perception that poultry meat is ‘healthy’ and a safe protein source. Consumption varies around the world and is largely a factor of income growth. As consumer power increases, consumption of poultry, as with other animal proteins, goes up.

Poultry demand takes wing despite scares

Retail Profile
In recent years, Slovenian retailer Mercator has developed as a strong consolidating force within its domestic retail market and now it is poised to perform in a similar fashion in the rest of the Balkan region.

Mercator: Ambitions in the Balkans