German plan

Belgian retailer Delhaize has confirmed plans to move into the German market. The entry vehicles will be a supermarket in Aachen, possibly under the Super Delhaize fascia, in March followed by an inner city c-store in September. 


Hyper india 

South African supermarket chain Shoprite is to enter the Indian market with a 70,000 sq ft hypermarket in March. The move follows research from Rabobank International predicting that the modern food retail sector in India is set to grow tenfold by 2006. 


Quick jack 

US hamburger chain Jack in the Box is entering the convenience market with a new store concept called Quick Stuff. Built next to the chain's restaurants, the 2,000 sq ft stores will feature ATMs and a petrol station with partners including Shell and Texaco. Eight co-branded sites are planned to open over the next year. 


Finland rdc 

Hard discounter Lidl is reported to be developing a second distribution centre in Finland to support its expansion plans in the market. 


Prague base 

Ahold is integrating operations in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia to create a new organisation, Ahold Central Europe (ACE). Based in Prague, it will merge functions such as sourcing, human resources, marketing and administration to leverage its scale and shared knowledge of the region. 

Ahold also revealed in an update for its third quarter that group organic growth has fallen 5% since last year. The Dutch-based group said organic growth rose just 1.5% compared to 6.5% in 2001. 

In the US, which accounts for 60% of turnover, third quarter retail sales grew 3.4%, down from 7.3% last year and organic growth at its foodservice division fell 6.1%. 

European sales increased 4.8%, down from 6.3% while sales at Ahold's operations in Central and South America and Asia rose 17.1%, 6% and 21.7% respectively.