GROCERY CHAIN NEWS ON FASTMOVING

London - Britain's Marks & Spencer will step-up expansion of its Simply Food store network as it looks to benefit from growing consumer demand for smaller, convenience outlets, it said on Tuesday.  read more

Bentonville, Ark. – The Indian central bank is reportedly reviewing findings of an investigation into whether Wal-Mart Stores broke that country’s investment rules in 2010.  read more

Shoprite chief executive Whitey Basson has moved beyond blaming the usual suspects of unions and labour legislation for South Africa’s economic woes and has lashed out at the “declining” manufacturing sector for its lack of innovation and competitiveness. read more

London - J Sainsbury, Britain's No. 3 supermarket, plans to open its first distribution centre dedicated to online grocery orders in response to rapidly increasing demand in south-east England. read more

Last week’s Nairobi’s Westgate Mall attacks had hammered Kenya’s general retailer, Nakumatt, one of Africa’s most home-based business triumphs, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).  read more

London - Tesco led European shares lower early on Wednesday after the world's third largest retailer's quarterly revenues flatlined as its turnaround plan failed to bear fruit, prompting earnings downgrades. read more

Lusaka - Blackstar Group SE, an investment company, said it will join other shareholders in fighting Shoprite Holdings Ltd.’s attempts to reverse trades in the retailer’s stock in Zambia. read more

Chase Bank (K) Limited, Naivas Supermarket and Visa have announced a partnership to launch a secure prepaid card for shopping convenience in Kenya, featuring the latest chip-based technology to cut the risk of fraud. read more

Los Angeles -- Grocery chain Fresh & Easy confirmed reports that its British parent Tesco LLC has sold the brand to private equity firm The Yucaipa Cos., following months of uncertainty about the 200+-unit chain’s future. read more

Grocery firm Uchumi Supermarkets at the weekend said it plans to list in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda bourses in the near future.  read more

Johannesburg - About 400 Pick n Pay employees will be jobless in the coming months after the company retrenched workers to cut costs. read more

Cape Town - Pick n Pay hopes to trim jobs across the country as it implements a turnaround strategy, BDLive reported on Wednesday. read more

Austin, Texas -- Whole Foods Market reported that its net income in the third quarter increased 21% to $142 million, better than analysts had expected. The company also sounded a bullish note about expansion. read more

Johannesburg - Africa's biggest grocer Shoprite [JSE:SHP] Holdings missed estimates with a 12.1% rise in full-year sales, reflecting a slowdown in spending that sent its shares sharply down on the Johannesburg bourse on Tuesday. read more

Brampton, Ontario – Loblaw Companies Limited announced it will acquire Shoppers Drug Mart in a deal worth about $11.9 billion, merging the Canadian grocery and drug retailers. read more

OK Zimbabwe has signed an agreement with a South Africa-based company, Kawena, to enable Zimbabweans resident in South Africa to purchase goods for family and friends back home. read more

London - A former chairman of Tesco, the world's No.3 retailer, said that restoring the store group's fortunes could take up to three years and appealed to investors to give Chief Executive Phil Clarke sufficient time. read more

London - Tesco, the world's third-biggest retailer, could face a revolt over executive pay at its annual shareholders' meeting on Friday after an advisory group urged investors to oppose the supermarket group's remuneration report. read more

Uchumi Supermarket is counting on small retail investors across East Africa as it seeks to raise cash for expansion.  read more

J Sainsbury Plc (SBRY), the U.K.’s third-largest supermarket chain, reported a 34th successive quarter of same-store sales growth as the grocer increased its share of the market while its main competitors all lost ground.  read more

Eenhana sees rapid development EENHANA – The recent opening of the Woermann Brock and Shoprite supermarkets in Eenhana has created new employment opportunities for more than 76 youngsters. read more

(MENAFN) Spar International CEO, Dr Gordon Campbell, announced that the Dutch supermarket chain plans to launch 10 stores in Lebanon during the coming 5 years, with the first to open at the start of 2014, reported Arabian Business. read more

London - Asda, Britain's second-biggest grocer, said on Tuesday it would invest over £700m ($1bn) this year in its online operations, new and existing stores and its supply chain, helping to create 2 500 new jobs. read more

Johannesburg - Pick n Pay Stores [JSE:PIK] retailers were down almost 3% on Tuesday morning following the release of their annual results. read more

On Tesco’s full-year results, David Gray, Retail Analyst at Planet Retail, commented:  read more

Nakumatt Holdings Ltd. on Friday said it wants to raise $50 million for its East African expansion. read more

(Reuters) - Kenya's Uchumi Supermarkets (UCHM.NR), the sole listed retailer in East Africa, plans to open six new stores in the next six months as well as expanding into Rwanda and South Sudan to tap new shoppers, its chief executive officer said on Thursday. 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

Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed diversified entity Meikles Limited is this week set to unveil is its second state-of-the-art Pick ’n’ Pay supermarket bringing to two such branches in the country. read more

Cerberus Capital Management LP’s pursuit of grocery chain Supervalu Inc. (SVU) has stalled because the private-equity firm has had trouble obtaining the funds for a leveraged buyout, said people familiar with the matter.  read more

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has put a local supermarket chain and their butchery to the test. read more

Johannesburg - Africa's biggest grocer Shoprite Holdings [JSE:SHP] booked a 15.6% jump in first-quarter sales helped by a robust showing outside its core South African market and favourable currency swings. read more

Carrefour SA (CA), the world’s second- largest retailer, gained the most in France’s benchmark CAC 40 Index after reporting sales that signaled new Chief Executive Officer Georges Plassat’s turnaround plan may be working.  read more

Woolworths has saved itself about R80m since 2007 by adopting "sustainability initiatives" such as energy efficiency, and plans to save R100m more this way by 2015, says the retailer’s sustainability head Justin Smith.  read more

Tesco Plc (TSCO) said the head of its biggest unit, Richard Brasher, will step down from the board and leave the company in July after the U.K.’s largest supermarket chain saw market share slide to seven-year low. read more

Amsterdam - Dutch shareholders’ association VEB said on Wednesday it is suing Deloitte and 178 of its current and former partners for damages over the firm’s involvement in Dutch retailer Ahold’s multi-billion-euro accounting scandal.  read more

Tesco Plc, the U.K.’s largest grocery chain, said it’s taking a “cautious approach” to introducing new banking products after a report that it will delay the start of checking accounts until next year. read more

South African grocery chain Spar Group on Wednesday reported a 3.3% rise in diluted headline earnings per share to 522.8 cents for the year ended September 2011 from 506.3 cents a year ago read more