Research & Analysis

BOSTON - A former food broker for Advantage/ESM was convicted on Monday in federal court of receipt of stolen securities and monies taken from Tewksbury, Mass.-based Demoulas Supermarkets, the U.S. Attorney's office reports.

ZURICH, Switzerland - Swiss food and beverage company Nestle SA today declined to comment on a report it made a preliminary bid of around $11.5 billion for U.S. chocolate company Hershey Foods Corp., Dow Jones Newswires reports.

LOS ANGELES - New research by ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, a VNU Company, shows that organic food shoppers are extremely loyal to the category, while non-buyers have virtually no interest in organic products. Both groups likely need more education on the topic.

YAKIMA, Wash. - Four supermarkets operating in Yakima, Wash., are bracing for a possible strike after asking workers to have their benefits scaled back in order to better compete with the nonunion Wal-Mart, which is expanding in Central Washington, the Yakima Herald Republic reports.

LOS ANGELES - Price-impact supermarket chain Food 4 Less, a division of The Kroger Co., has announced the opening of its first Fuel Center at one of its stores in the San Fernando Valley community of North Hills.

Charlotte, N.C. - Elogex Inc., provider of collaborative logistics solutions, today announced that Bozzuto's, a New England-based wholesale grocer, has selected its transportation logistics platform.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Delhaize Group, the Belgian international food retailer, on Monday announced it is streamlining its senior executive team in a move to further capitalize on the recent share exchange transaction with its major U.S. subsidiary, Delhaize America.

WINNERSH, United Kingdom - Symbol Technologies Inc. announced today that Safeway U.K. is deploying 2,000 Symbol PPT 2740 rugged handheld computers and the Symbol Spectrum24 wireless local area network (WLAN) in nearly 490 stores throughout the U.K.