Supermarket/Grocery

Andy Small, senior vice president, Northern California Supermarkets for Ralphs Grocery Company, was recently elected California Grocers Association Chairman of the Board.

Business Wire ACNielsen U.S. today announced its first delivery to clients of sales information and insights from its new Wal-Mart Channel Service.

Food distributors are being squeezed by three powerful trends that are pressing the industry to further increase efficiencies in distribution centers (DCs) and try even harder to meet customers' logistics needs, according to the 2001 Food Industry Distribution Center Benchmarking Report, recently released by FDI and FMI.

Safeway Inc. will hold a conference for analysts and institutional investors today to review its performance in the last year and its prospects for continued growth. The company is targeting five-year annual earnings per share growth of 13% - 15%.

J Sainsbury, the UK's second largest supermarket, said on Wednesday that strong sales growth seen earlier this year had continued.

EU Food Safety Commissioner David Byrne announced on Tuesday that the European Union needs an "urgent review" of its defense plan against potential bioterrorism attacks on the food chain, Reuters reports.

Fleming Cos. Inc., the No. 2 U.S. wholesale food supplier behind Supervalu Inc., today reported a 52 percent increase in third quarter 2001 net earnings to $22.8 million, or $0.47 per share, after adjustments to exclude strategic plan charges and one-time items, compared to $15.0 million, or $0.37 per share, in the third quarter of 2000.

Albertson's Inc. has expanded its full-service online grocery ordering and shopping operation, Albertsons.com, to San Diego, giving consumers the option of home delivery or pick-up of their grocery order at their neighborhood Albertson's store.