Collaboration and best practice news

Continuing the changes seen amongst European buying alliances, Tesco and Carrefour have announced they have decided ‘not to extend their Purchasing Alliance beyond the three-year operational framework agreed in 2021’. Focus to now switch to working on their own opportunities The retailers said ‘over the last three years, [we] have benefited from a number of joint buying opportunities across...

Majid Al Futtaim (MAF), which operates the Carrefour brand across the Middle East and Africa, has teamed up with Takeoff Technologies to launch an automated fulfilment centre (FC) at its Carrefour store in Jeddah’s Al-Sulaymaniyah A first-of-its-kind in KSA A first-of-its-kind in the Kingdom, the automated facility reduces orders processing time by up to 50%. Al-Sulaymaniyah is the first ...

We highlight the most read content from May, picking out some of the key insights from the most viewed reports. We produced our second Fundamentals report which provides guidance for successful management of all types of promotions across the multi-channel landscape. We also explored models food and consumer goods companies are adopting to sell their products online. In addition, we looked...

As Instacart launches a new 30-minute delivery service in the US, we consider the prospects for shorter delivery times in the market. Service initially available in 15 cities Instacart is rolling-out the new ‘Priority Delivery’ service to customers in more than 15 of the largest cities in the US, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. It will initial...

Flytrex, an Israel-based drone delivery startup, is expanding its drone delivery service in Fayetteville, North Carolina, after receiving approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Deliveries up to a mile away from retailers Walmart has been part of Flytrex’s Fayetteville program since September of last year, offering drone delivery of select groceries and household goods....

Tesco is set to trial a new rapid delivery service, Whoosh, at its Willenhall Express store in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, before assessing the potential to expand the service to other locations. A one-hour service Shoppers will be able to order via the retailer’s app or Tesco.com, with products delivered by partner Stuart, an on-demand grocery delivery service, within 60 minutes by bike...

Gorillas, a Germany-based startup that provides grocery delivery in ten minutes or less, is set to launch in the US on 30 th May, starting in New York City. Based initially in parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan The ultrarapid delivery startup will begin operations in parts of Broolyn including the Bushwick, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens neighborhoods, before expanding to Manhattan in June...

Mars and Microsoft are working together to accelerate Mars’ digital transformation by tapping the Microsoft Azure platform to optimise its operational speed and intelligent manufacturing supply chains. Transformation into a digital-first company Mars is set to incorporate transparent and responsible data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies into Mars’ global portfolio of...

Building on comments from president and CEO, Vivek Sankaran, earlier this month, Albertsons has confirmed that it is evolving its buying structure to adopt a centralised approach. Cost savings opportunity Speaking during its Q4 results, Sankaran highlighted that the retailer had increased its $1bn productivity savings target to $1.5bn by 2022. This builds on the $500m savings delivered la...

The Kroger Co., America’s largest grocery retailer, and Drone Express, a unit of Telegrid Technologies, have teamed up to trial a grocery delivery service via autonomous drones. Starting from Centerville, Ohio Drone Express is set is start test flights this week near Kroger’s store in Centerville, Ohio. The drones will be handled by licensed Drone Express pilots from an on-site trailer wi...