Supermarket & Grocery Industry News

The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR - news) today said it is cooperating with a ground beef recallannounced by American Foods Group, Inc., a wholesale meat supplier based in Green Bay, Wisconsin.American Foods announced the recall as a precautionary measure after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) detected thepresence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli) bacteria in a sample of beef processed by American Foods.

Laurel Grocery Company announced their continued expansion into Eastern Ohio with the agreement from several IGA retailers to form an ad group and be supplied by Laurel.

IBM announced that supermarket chain Raley's expects to save $3 million over the next five years by standardizing its next-generation applications on IBM's e-infrastructure technology.

McCain Foods Limited will acquire the production facilities and food service business of Anchor Food Products Inc. in a three-party transaction. H.J. Heinz Company will purchase the company's branded products sold to retail outlets, including supermarkets and club stores.

Retalix Ltd. (Nasdaq: RTLX - news), today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to acquire all the outstanding shares of capital stock of privately held BASS Inc. of Dayton, Ohio. BASS is a market-leading provider of retail automation technology, primarily to tier-two grocery operators.

intesource, a provider of web-based procurementservices to grocery and healthcare buyers, and Cleartrack Information Network, a leader in supply chain visibility, today announced astrategic partnership to deliver end-to-end online procurement and distribution services that manage the entire procurement supplychain, from supplier negotiations to dock delivery and post-delivery analysis.

ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, and the MediaPlan division of Spectra Inc., each VNU companies, today announced the launch of a jointly developed information service that brings a new level of actionability to the process of marketing mix modeling.

UCCnet, a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization that provides industry standards-based, global data synchronization, recently announced the formation of an advisory council to inform UCCnet regarding issues of enhanced functionality, product performance and usability within the organization's universal foundation for electronic commerce.