Photo: European Supermarket Magazine

The winners of the 2021 European Private Label Awards have been announced, with retailers from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Portugal and the Baltic region taking the top honours across 14 award categories. The Awards, which are organised by ESM: European Supermarket Magazine, celebrate excellence in store brand innovation, and are open to both retailers and suppliers operating in the European grocery industry.

Photo: Morrisons

UK retailer Morrison’s has announced a 50.7% fall in profits to £201 million for the year to January 31. The plummeting profits are mainly due to the additional £290 million in costs linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. A large contributor is an increase in staff absences, as well as the £230 million impact of handing its business rates relief back to the Treasury.

Photo: Eurofresh Distribution

January saw a 9.7% year-on-year rise in sales of produce, according to a report by the PMA, IRI and 210 Analytics. The figure excludes online-only and delivery e-commerce sales, which are well up on 2020 levels.

Photo: Plenty

According to NielsenIQ data, the number of British households shopping for groceries online has more than doubled in the last year, reaching 41% compared to 18% at the same point in 2020. Overall, online grocery sales are up 132% y-o-y, while sales at bricks and mortar stores declined by 1%. UK shoppers spent £1.5bn on online groceries in the four weeks ending 27th February 2021, with the online share reaching 17%. This is the highest ever share for online grocery sales in the UK and a 1% increase in share in just a month. 

Photo: HAS AVOCADO BOARD

Photo: LIDL España

Photo: CNN

Photo:Creative Commons

The UK organic market grew 12.6% in 2020 and is now worth £2.8 billion, according to Soil Association Certification’s Organic Market Report 2021. This is the highest growth rate seen in 15 years, with over £50 million per week spent on organic food and drink during 2020. 

Source: InfoLine analytic agency

The pandemic and connected crisis negatively influenced most formats of trade in Russia. Many FMCG stores were closed. Thus, the total number of hypermarkets decreased by 68 outlets in 2020; hypermarkets share makes up less than 20% now (among top-200 FMCG retailers).