Spotlight
on German Retail

No Heinz soup for this little boy: But at least Rewe explains the delisting to his parents

Unleash the dogs of war, this year’s trade talks are here! Well, almost…        

Usually, it is only in the bleak German winter that local retailers and suppliers hold their annual range reviews and trade talks.        

Traditionally, however, that doesn’t stop both sides rattling their sabres months in advance of these ritual bull fights which generally end with much blood flowing down the river Rhine.         

In the first round of the good old bun fight we have Rewe and Edeka getting heavy with Heinz and Coca-Cola. Read more »

The winner takes it all: When Aldi quits Greece at the end of this year, Lidl will have a very level playing-field

The gods of ancient Greece loved to play with the fate of man. 

Particular amusement was afforded to them by making a positive character trait the downfall of the tragic hero. 

His decline was then mapped with bitter irony which mocked him until his inexorable end.          

It is not known to this blogger, whether the powers that be at Aldi Süd‘s headquarters in Mülheim read Sophocles at night. 

But, if they do, they will find their fate mirrored by the dramatist’s malevolent panoply of gods who have for ever frustrated and scorned the best endeavours of man. Read more »

Relaunch: Kaiser's Tengelmann want their staff to contribute towards the refurbishment of at least 60 stores per year

Loss-making Kaiser’s Tengelmann wishes to negotiate a contract with the German trades union ver.di which will “secure the future”.     

According to LZ information, the management of the limited company believe that this can be best achieved if the approximately 20,000 employees accept a temporary reduction in their contractual holiday and Christmas bonuses.             

This would save the regional supermarket multiple an estimated €35m ($45m; £29m) to €40m ($51m; £33m) over a three-year period — money which could contribute towards the modernisation of at least 60 stores per year. Read more »

Theo Albrecht was a revolutionary pioneer in retailing. The secretive billionaire may have been one of Germany’s richest entrepreneurs, but he was also probably the most modest.

With his older brother, Karl Albrecht (90), he took over the management of the family delicatessen store in 1946 and co-founded what eventually became the Aldi empire, stretching from the United States to Poland. 

Much has been written about Theo Albrecht in Germany over the last few days. Presumably, however, the question foremost in the minds of those international LZ-Spotlight readers who supply or compete with Aldi is whether his decease will mean a change in the way the hard discounter does business. Read more »

Sometimes the unthinkable happens. Unexpectedly, Germany’s most profitable and thorough hard discounter       

Flight from Mount Olympus: Aldi will exit Greece this December

has announced its intention to exit the troubled Balkan country only two years after entry.

This represents the first time in Aldi‘s long history of international expansion that it has ever quit a foreign market.       

The wording of the low-profile, privately-run company’s press release this week was characteristically terse:

“The Aldi Süd group is ending the business operations of its 38 stores in Greece. Talks regarding the sale and future operation of these outlets are being conducted with several interested parties.”  Read more »

Talk with Ralf Kleber, CEO of Amazon.de: "Success will come of its own accord"

The US giant, which posted revenues of $19.1bn (€15.2bn; £12.7bn) and earnings of $645m (€514m; £431m) last year, now offers tech-savvy Germans more than 40,000 food lines.           

LZ’s Jörg Rode tested Amazon’s new service by ordering a litre of organic long-life milk, a honeydew melon, a bottle of wine, half a dozen bananas and spaghetti.  

He found a number of teething problems, but Ralf Kleber, CEO of Amazon.de, provides a robust defence in an exclusive interview with Lebensmittel Zeitung. Read more »

It's all in the box: eStore offers all P&G's 2,300 lines and charges only $5 for shipping regardless of order size

US fmcg giant Procter & Gamble is at pains to downplay the potential for its new digital commerce initiative, eStore, to disrupt relations with retailers.

Thus Paul Fox, international director for corporate communications, has given an extraordinarily defensive interview to LZ‘s Martin Mehringer in which he continually emphasises learning over sales.

Admittedly, last year, online sales accounted for less than 1 per cent of P&G’s revenues of $79bn (€99.4bn; £52bn).

However, eStore, which offers Pantene shampoo, Pampers baby products, Gillette razors, CoverGirl cosmetics, Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste etc., will surely power the company’s online sales. It will also bring P&G into direction competition with the online propositions of such major retail customers as Walmart, Target, CVS and Walgreens. Read more »

Dr Johnson goes shopping: Those who prefer hard copy need look no further

Hard to believe, but true! Lebensmittel Zeitung‘s new baby, LZ-Spotlight, celebrates its first birthday this week!  

Our thanks to all those from an astonishing total of 59 countries who have signed up for our free weekly newsletter as well as to those who have ventured to comment on the site!  

On this venerable occasion, we should like to draw your attention to our new English-German, German-English online retail dictionary. To use this free service, simply click the heading “Retail Dictionary” in the blue right-hand box and scroll for the word you need.  

This translation tool makes no claim to exhaustiveness and certainly does not intend to compete with Beatrix Davies-Labeck’s able and compendious “Dictionary of Retailing and Supply Chain“; however, it does aim to provide a selection of useful trade vocabulary often not found in general or even business dictionaries. Read more »

Klaus Gehrig: "Russia: no. China: Twice no"

Schwarz-Gruppe boss, Klaus Gehrig, clearly wants to counter any impression that Germany’s largest discounter might be flagging.           

In an exclusive interview with Lebensmittel Zeitung‘s managing editor, Angela Wisken, the CEO of the Neckarsulm-based giant seemed to be at pains to put the record straight (cf. “Lidl’s foreign profit falls“).           

Despite the fact that consolidated revenues at the Swabian retail group virtually stagnated at €54.8bn ($68.7bn; £45.4bn) last year, compared with €54bn ($67.7bn; £44.7bn) in 2008, Gehrig insists that the company is still firmly in expansion mode. Read more »