Inventory

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Delhaize Group here will roll out a new private label home meal solution product line in April 2008, the company said yesterday. The line, On the Go Bistro, features ready-to-heat meals incorporating high-quality, wholesome ingredients.

CINCINNATI -- Jeff Parker has been named president of The Kroger Co.'s Hutchinson, Kan.-based Kwik Shop convenience store division, where he will oversee 131 Kwik Shop stores in Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Penn Traffic Co. said yesterday that it has signed a produce procurement contract with Keene, N.H.-based C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., the second-largest food wholesaler in the United States. Starting March 1, the agreement will permit Penn Traffic to benefit from purchasing cost efficiencies while expanding access to new and alternative products.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -- In a first-of-its-kind alliance, The Nielsen Company here will enable consumer packaged goods manufacturers and convenience store retailers to have access to c-store sales data classified according to the National Association of Convenience Stores' NACS) defined hierarchy of product categories.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. And VANCOUVER, B.C. -- In its latest green move, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has joined forces with Westport Innovations, Inc., a global provider of gaseous-fueled power technologies, to introduce four liquefied natural gas (LNG) -fueled Peterbilt 386 trucks into service at its distribution center in Apple Valley, Calif.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Regardless which teams play in the annual Super Bowl, which team wins, or what the final score is, the U.S. poultry industry and its grocery partners are among the biggest winners on Super Bowl Sunday each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service bureau.

SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- Hannaford Bros. Co. here kicked off its fifth annual "Have a Heart for Hunger" initiative, which helps provides hunger relief to food banks in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts, on Sunday, Feb. 3. To date, the campaign has raised over $325,000 for America's Second Harvest agencies. Have a Heart for Hunger runs until March 1.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. here said yesterday it has become the first nationwide U.S. grocery chain to require suppliers of its private label and other food products such as produce, meat, fish, poultry, and ready-to-eat foods to have their factories certified against one of the internationally recognized Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards.