Retail

Bloomberg With fermented foods reaching near-cult status for the health-obsessed, consumers have started hunting for the perfect bacteria. As a result, brand awareness — and the marketing that comes with it — has now made its way into the world of food cultures, according to Mauricio Graber, the chief executive of Denmark’s Chr Hansen Holding A/S, the world’s biggest maker ...

Bloomberg Taco Bell said it will begin testing a Beyond Meat menu item in the US, sending the faux-meat maker’s shares higher. The fast-food chain, a division of Yum! Brands Inc, said the companies are working together to create “an innovative new plant-based protein” that will be tested in the next year. Taco Bell cited Beyond’s “record of attracting younger ...

Bloomberg Digital brands looked headed for a reckoning a year ago, with bloated valuations, rising advertising costs and ever more competition. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US and gave a giant gift to brands that mainly sell directly through the web. With their brick-and-mortar competition shuttered and the virus raging, Americans flocked online and loaded up on home goods, ...

Bloomberg Urban Outfitters Inc plummeted after reporting a tough holiday quarter and a planned exit for the CEO of its namesake brand. The retailer said in a statement that Trish Donnelly, chief executive officer for the Urban Outfitters chain, will depart at the end of the month for a new opportunity. Sheila Harrington, who already runs the Free People brand, ...

Bloomberg Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc, the Canadian convenience-store operator that owns the Circle K chain, is exploring a takeover of French grocer Carrefour SA, a deal that would create a trans-Atlantic retail giant. Couche-Tard said it has started “exploratory discussions” on a friendly deal with Carrefour, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. There’s no certainty the talks will lead to a ...

Bloomberg In a bid to better leverage its millions of customers, retail giant Walmart Inc created a fintech startup to win more of their spending. The company has formed a partnership with Ribbit Capital, an investor in stock-trading platform Robinhood, to start a venture that “will bring together Walmart’s retail knowledge and scale with Ribbit’s fintech expertise to deliver tech-driven ...

Bloomberg Australian household spending jumped in November as the southeastern state of Victoria was released from lockdown and consumers took advantage of discounts during annual Black Friday sales. Retail sales advanced 7.1% from a month earlier, compared with the 7% gain forecast by economists and the 7% reported in late December as the preliminary figure, data from the Australian Bureau ...

Bloomberg Marks & Spencer (M&S) Group warned that sales will suffer from the UK’s new lockdown and as Brexit complicates doing business in countries such as Ireland. Fiscal third quarter like-for-like sales fell by 7.6%, as weaker clothing and homewares revenue offset a stronger performance in food. The company said products exported to countries such as Ireland are facing red ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc has shuttered Prime Pantry, a grocery and household essentials delivery service that was one of the retailer’s early forays into selling food online. The program closed last week, an Amazon spokeswoman said, and thousands of products previously available under the Prime Pantry banner were folded into the company’s main retail site. Launched in 2014, Prime Pantry featured ...

Bloomberg Shopify Inc said it shut down e-commerce stores affiliated with President Donald Trump in response to the storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters. “We have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump,” a company spokeswoman said by email. “Shopify does not tolerate actions that incite violence.” The shutdown affects the Trump Organization’s official store, TrumpStore.com, and a campaign ...