MARKETING NEWS

Brussels - SABMiller [JSE:SAB], the world's second biggest brewer, reported profit growth in line with expectations thanks to a surge in earnings in Latin America and Africa and said its markets should be broadly unchanged in the coming months.  read more

Johannesburg - Mr Price Group, extended gains after full-year earnings beat estimates as sales improved at its apparel chain. read more

REDLANDS, Calif. -- Esri announces that Carrefour Group, the second-largest retailer in the world with nearly 10,000 stores around the globe, has implemented an enterprise-wide marketing solution from Esri partner Galigeo.  read more

Lenovo Group Ltd’s bold acquisitions in its flagship PC business, a foray into mobile gadgets, and a relatively light debt load are setting it apart from PC rivals as industry shipments take their steepest fall in decades. read more

Tokyo - Sony chief Kazuo Hirai said Wednesday the company was examining a hedge fund proposal to sell off part of its entertainment unit in a bid to boost profits in its core business. read more

A local retail giant is said to have acquired a rival’s operations in Nairobi in a bid to consolidate its business in the city. read more

New Delhi: Liquor prices are set to rise in the coming weeks as the cabinet cleared the new excise policy on Monday. While the policy leaves the licence fee untouched for the financial year 2013-2014, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) will be dearer by 5% and country liquor by 11% once the new rates are notified in June.  read more

Heineken will not be launching its sweeter, low-alcohol Radler beer in Kenya. It will instead focus on its flagship brand to grow local market share. read more

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney Co. reported a deeper-than-expected loss of $348 million for its first quarter, compared to $163 million in the year-ago period, amid a 16.4% decline in revenue. The results came as the company seeks to undo the damage caused by former CEO Ron Johnson’s costly and largely failed makeover.  read more

The Witness newspaper has broken the mould of typical print media by integrating augmented reality as a way to extend the life its physical print content. read more

London – Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, said on Sunday that it planned to open more than 50 new franchise stores, worldwide, for its clothing brand over the next five years. read more

Harare - Delta Beverages, the Zimbabwe-based subsidiary of SABMiller [JSE:SAB], continued to defy the odds in the economically ravaged country with forecast-beating earnings for the year ended December 31 2012. read more

Sainsbury's has posted a fall in pre-tax profits despite a rise in sales, as conditions remain 'challenging'.  read more

Kenya's Uchumi Supermarkets will open 13 new stores over the next year as East Africa's sole listed retailer prepares for a cash call and a cross listing of its shares, its chief executive said on Tuesday. read more

Pick n Pay has formally joined forces with BP Southern Africa to roll out Pick n Pay Express stores at BP service stations in the country’s major metropolitan areas. read more

Choppies Enterprise Limited, the opaque retail store, issued a trading update earlier last month ahead of its two-year ambitious plan that will see its turnover hitting the US$ 1 billion mark (about P 8 billion) per annum. .  read more

Kgalagadi Breweries Limited (KBL) recently revealed that the placing of the people dressed in orange suits in strategic locations around Botswana was a part of their marketing strategy to relaunch its cider, Core Original. read more

Johannesburg - A thirst for beer among Africa's middle classes is driving the world's biggest brewers to invest on the continent, but getting women to drink the beverage is another matter. read more

Ghana’s premier beverage manufacturer, Accra Brewery Limited (ABL), has begun a responsible alcohol retailing training programme for retailers of its alcoholic products in the country. read more

Sony forecast annual profit that missed analysts’ estimates on Friday as chief executive Kazuo Hirai rolls out new Xperia smartphones and Bravia televisions to recapture market share lost to Samsung Electronics. read more

South African drugmaker Adcock Ingram said on Thursday a rival bid was in the offing to a $675m (R60.7) one made by conglomerate Bidvest [JSE:BVT], raising the stakes for a possible acquisition and pushing its share price up almost 8%. read more

Arandis – Dantago Clothing, which manufactures children’s clothing for Woolworths South Africa, will be expanding its services to stores in Botswana and Lesotho this year. read more

Nambia Breweries Ltd (NBL) celebrated Reinheitsgebot Day in style in April by launching its RHG campaign and opening the first barrel of Urbock, the brewer’s winter beer. read more

Johannesburg - SA’s entertainment and media companies have reached the “end of the digital beginning”‚ with digital activities now becoming the “new normal” for traditional media companies‚ according to a report by professional services firm PwC.  read more

Copenhagen - Danish brewer Carlsberg's first-quarter operating profit and revenue beat forecasts on Tuesday, as strong beer sales in Asia cushioned sluggish mature European markets and a decline in its former growth driver Russia. read more

London - Microsoft, trying to find growth markets for its mobile products, is projecting that rising demand in South Africa will help it pass BlackBerry and Android and pave the way for further gains on the continent. read more

New York - Wal-Mart Stores once again leads Fortune's list of the 500 biggest US companies by revenue, as the world's biggest retailer succeeded in posting strong growth despite a challenging economy for its shoppers. read more

Makro has expanded its presence in Gauteng with the opening of a new urban store in Alberton on 24 April 2013. Massmart invested R400 million rand to build the 19 008m2 Makro Alberton store.  read more

An estimated 405 million handsets, including 197 million smartphones, were shipped in the first quarter of 2013, according to market intelligence firm ABI Research.  read more

New developments, refurbishments and an increase in international brands set to drive continued growth Cape Town, 02 May 2013: The V&A Waterfront continues to track ahead of national retail growth figures in 2013. According to the latest report by Statistics SA, results for the national average sales growth in January indicate a 6.8% increase while the V&A reports show a growth of 11.64% increase for January.  read more

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp will struggle to improve its margins this year as it increases marketing spend for its latest model in a bid to catch up to rivals Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc. read more

Not only is Germany forming a last line of defence against the euro’s implosion, the land of steins and beer kellers also offers fertile ground to distillers foraging for sales in Western Europe’s withered landscape. read more

Johannesburg - Clicks Group has said diluted earnings per share excluding one-time items will grow 5 to 10 percent in the year to end August amid weakening demand.  read more

Seoul, April 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's consumer electronics giant LG Electronics said Monday that it began sales of curved organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV for the first time in the global industry.  read more

Samsung has opened a Smart Care Centre in Johannesburg, offering consumers a same-day walk-in carry-in service across a wide of range products. read more

Johannesburg - The Competition Tribunal on Thursday approved Rainbow Chicken's [JSE:RBW] acquisition of a 64.2% interest in Foodcorp Holdings with conditions‚ which were not immediately available. read more

Unilever’s breadth of businesses and markets would enable it to ride out the tough environment in Europe, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company said yesterday as it reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter growth. read more

Seoul - Samsung on Friday released the latest version of its flagship Galaxy smartphone, as it announced record first quarter profits driven by surging sales growth in its mobile division. read more

San Francisco - Apple reported on Tuesday that its quarterly profit dipped for the first time in nearly a decade as it squeezed less money from its champions in the competitive smartphone and tablet markets. read more

Demand for Peroni has pushed brewing giant SABMiller to an increase in UK sales, despite an overall decline in the domestic lager market. read more

Berghoff Brewing will revive its brands this summer with updated recipes, and a move to contract brewing the beers at Stevens Point Brewery. read more

(Reuters) - China's largest makers of popular, fiery "baijiu" liquor are bracing for a slowdown this year after nearly a decade of heady growth as a crackdown on lavish official spending starts to hit home. read more

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and the U.S. Justice Department reached an agreement over the company’s acquisition of Grupo Modelo SAB, two people familiar with the matter said. read more

United Breweries Ltd. (UBBL), India’s largest brewer, expects sales of Heineken NV’s (HEIA) namesake brand to climb more than 50 percent in the country this fiscal year as it ramps up distribution of the pricier foreign beer. read more

Fabupharm Products, a wholly-owned Namibian pharmaceutical manufacturer, has doubled in size over the past year. Subsequent to upgrading its manufacturing facility to comply with international standards, Fabupharm announced recently it has received an Official Manufacturing GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) License from the Namibian Medicines Regulatory Council (NMRC). This means that Fabupharm is now licensed to manufacture scheduled medicinal products. read more

As Wal-Mart Stores plotted an African entry strategy, buying Massmart Holdings two years ago was just the right vehicle. With 377 stores across the continent and a strong position in South Africa, Massmart offered the Americans a firm foothold in a fast-growing region. read more

Shares of JSE-listed Mr Price gained 3 percent to R118.98 on Wednesday’s early trade after it said figures for the year ended March would be higher than in the previous reporting period. read more

Johannesburg - Aspen Pharmacare Holdings [JSE:APN] has plans to buy Nestle's infant nutritional business for $215m, the company said on Thursday.  read more

(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson beat Wall Street's quarterly profit estimates on sharply lower taxes, strong sales of prescription drugs and a revival of over-the-counter medicines that had been recalled over quality control problems. read more

Paris - French food group Danone said Tuesday the explosion in demand for baby formula in China helped lift sales by 4.3% in the first quarter of the year to €5.3bn ($6.9bn). read more

Nokia’s push to expand sales of its Lumia smartphones in new markets such as China should help shrink an overall revenue decline and reduce its first-quarter loss, easing some of the pressure on CEO Stephen Elop.  read more

Rochester - Kodak says it has agreed to sell some of its document imaging assets to Brother Industries Ltd. for about $210 million. read more

Montreal - Smartphone maker BlackBerry on Friday slammed as "false and misleading" a brokerage research note which claimed consumers were returning the new Z10 handsets at a high rate. read more

Johannesburg - South Africa has imposed new rules requiring goods imported from occupied Palestinian territories display special labels, a government official said on Thursday.  read more

SABMiller planned to boost beer volume sales in Africa by between 7 percent and 9 percent a year by slashing prices, using more local grains and cheaper packaging, and negotiating better tax terms with governments, the company said yesterday. read more

New York - Worldwide sales of personal computers slid 13.9% in the first quarter of 2013, research firm IDC said on Wednesday, the worst contraction since it began tracking the market in 1994. read more

Cape Town - Fast growing Africa could be a dominant force in the world's economic landscape for decades to come if the continent gets its act together, top Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill said on Tuesday.  read more

Naivas rolls out Westlands branch NAIROBI, Kenya, Supermarket chain Naivas opened its latest branch in Westlands, Nairobi, bringing to 18 the number of their stores countrywide.  read more

Stockholm - Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson said on Monday it had agreed to buy Microsoft's Internet Protocol television (IPTV) business Media Room for an undisclosed sum. read more

A study conducted by Barclays Bank UK has revealed that Ghana is the second preferred African country for British retailers wanting to expand their businesses.  read more

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Smart Connected Device Tracker, worldwide shipments of smart connected devices grew 29.1% year over year in 2012, crossing 1 billion units shipped with a value of $576.9 billion.  read more

MULTICHOICE Zambia has opened a new Digital Satellite Television (DStv) agent outlet in Kitwe to serve its customers effectively and efficiently. read more

Molo Milk beats KCC, Brookside as preferred brand  read more

Seoul - South Korea's Samsung Electronics said on Friday it expected a sharp increase in first-quarter operating profit to 8.7-trillion won ($7.7-billion), up 52.9 percent from the first three months of 2012. read more

Milan - Family owned Italian fashion house Versace is ready to sell some of the company to outside investors to help fund expansion in foreign markets such as Asia, its chief executive said in an interview.  read more

Nigerians Spent $1.2 Billion On 21 Million Mobile Phones In 2012: GFK RT A report by GfK Retail and Technology Nigeria has shown the Nigerian market spent an average of 181 billion naira ($1.2 billion) to purchase 21.5 million mobile phones in 2012. read more

New York - The Wall Street Journal says Apple is set for a possible summer launch of the next iPhone, rather than a fall launch like the last two models. read more

Tesco-owned convenience store chain One Stop Store Limited has revealed plans to launch a new franchise model with local independent retailers. read more

Elim Mall became the latest shopping mall to open in Limpopo province, on March 28 2013, bringing Elim consumers a new generation premium-grade retail experience. read more

PC and mobile device manufacturer Lenovo is targeting the top position in Africa, with a planned expansion on the continent. read more

Toronto - BlackBerry announced an unexpected quarterly profit on demand for the new touchscreen device that holds the key to its successful turnaround, but revenue remained far below year-earlier levels.  read more

Zurich - Swiss premium chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli has lost a court battle to protect its gold foil-wrapped Easter bunnies from imitation by a German rival. read more

[Cape Town, 21 March 2013] As part of its strategic expansion into Africa Pick n Pay will open its sixth Zambian store in Luanshya – in the country’s Copper Belt Province. This is a signal of confidence in Zambia’s economic future and takes the total number of Pick n Pay stores outside of South Africa to 95, across eight countries.  read more

Retailer Naivas Supermarkets is taking competition head on in the scramble for business by venturing into high end areas that are dominated by the major players within the market. read more

China is becoming an increasingly important market for New Zealand wine and a group of local firms is hoping to boost sales further by making an appearance this week at one of the Asian superpower's biggest international trade shows, the Chengdu Wine Fair.  read more

South Africa is anticipating a grape crop of more than 1.3-million tons for 2013 – a record in the wine industry’s history – which could, depending on market demand, potentially aid wine exports. The country’s wine exports reached a record of 417-million litres in 2012, up 17% from 2011. read more

Johannesburg - Eighteen-year-olds can drive, pay taxes and join the army – but will be banned from drinking alcohol if Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has his way. read more

Bangalore: While Americans and Europeans prefer their beer to be light on alcohol content, Indians have traditionally been partial to a stronger brew, a preference that’s become further accentuated of late along with an improvement in the image associated with such beverages. read more

South Africa, the eighth-biggest wine producer, is seeking to regain a foothold in the US market lost to imports from Australia to Argentina by promoting brands at Walmart Stores and Whole Foods Market, a diplomat said last week.  read more

London - Global brewer SABMiller expects more growth from its business in Latin America, its largest market, even though the company has limited exposure to high-growth Brazil and Mexico. read more

Dayton, Ohio -- Walmart holds on to the top spot in the annual ranking of the 50 most valuable U.S. retail brands from branding consultancy firm Interbrand.  read more

Johannesburg - The Gauteng Economic Development Department says it will follow popular will on the proposed total ban on the sale of alcohol on Sundays. read more

A German court ruled in favor of Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia on Tuesday, saying some devices made by Taiwan’s HTC infringed on its power-saving patent. read more

Johannesburg - The Consumer Goods Council of SA (CGCSA) expressed disappointment on Tuesday at the publication of regulations to reduce salt content in foodstuffs. read more

Intel Corp’s media group has been on a hiring spree as it prepares to launch an Internet television service later this year, underscoring the chip maker’s seriousness about the new business. read more

Bucharest - French food industry group Danone said Monday it had withdrawn some of its dairy products from sale in Romania after a potentially carcinogenic substance was found in milk from one of its suppliers.  read more

International consumer goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble (P&G), which plans to build a state-of-the-art R1.6 billion manufacturing plant in Gauteng, is positioning itself to capture growth in Africa as the slowdown in developed markets continues. read more

Zurich - Swiss luxury chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli said it was confident people would keep buying its sweet treats this year despite weak consumer sentiment in its key market, Europe.  read more

Oslo - The Norwegian Food Safety Authority said on Friday it would file a police complaint against a food company after finding large quantities of pork in its halaal-labelled products. read more

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 23 – Nakumatt Holdings says it has attained its midterm corporate expansion goal, with the opening of its 40th branch in Thika town. read more

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. has made two e-commerce acquisitions aimed at expanding its presence in the growing cooking and kitchenware market. The retailer said it has acquired CHEFS Catalog and assets of Cooking.com in two separate transactions.  read more

Cape Town - A steadfast commitment to exceptional quality, service and big dreams has allowed a startup company to turn their dreams into reality by manufacturing and supplying luxury paper bags for Country Road and Trenery - brands owned by Woolworths Holdings [JSE:WHL].  read more

New York - Hostess is moving ahead with plans to sell its Twinkies and other snack cakes to two investment firms after no other competitive offers were made. read more

Johannesburg - Clicks climbed the most in almost seven months as food and drug retailers continued to recover from an early-year slump driven by slower consumer spending. read more

Johannesburg - Consumer goods group AVI [JSE:AVI] has reported an 8% rise in headline earnings per share to 210c in the six months ended December 2012‚ from 194.2c a year ago.  read more

Social network Facebook has continued to lose South Africa users in February, according to data from social media monitoring firm, SocialBakers. read more

Frankfurt - German sportswear and equipment maker Adidas said that one-off writedowns hit its bottom line in 2012, but underlying profits increased due to higher sales. read more

South Africa’s wine exports to Sweden, one of the local industry’s biggest markets, are listed as “at risk” following the recent unrest that took place mainly in the Hex River Valley, although the farms there produce table grapes and not wine. read more

Johannesburg - South African furniture maker and retailer Steinhoff International reported a 5 percent rise in first-half profit on Tuesday as the weaker rand currency helped offset slack consumer demand.  read more

Harare - Zimbabwe is working on putting stringent measures on meat imports from South Africa amid concerns of contaminated meat products from the country.  read more