Company

Published

Brief Summary

7-Eleven

01/03/2005

The world’s largest convenience store operator is continuing to expand its domestic and overseas presence as well as its profits, benefiting from growth in the convenience market across the globe.

Aeon

01/07/2005

Japan’s leading retailer reported another year of record sales and profits, but sluggish sales at its Jusco general merchandise stores have led the group to begin a three year restructuring programme.

Ahold

01/02/2005

Ahold is working to rebuild its reputation as a world-class retailer through debt reduction and the divestiture of many of its overseas businesses.

Albertsons

01/05/2005

Albertsons is making a slower than expected recovery from last year’s workers strike in Southern California and faces falling profits as it invests heavily to win back business.

Aldi

01/02/2005

Aldi is battling hard on prices as even the discounters experience stagnation in a recession hit Germany.  Overseas the group is continuing with rapid expansion, including plans to add stores in the UK and Ireland.

Alliance UniChem

01/11/2005

Alliance UniChem has continued its growth across Europe in both its wholesale and retail divisions.  And with the recently announced merger with Boots, the group looks set to benefit from significantly increased buying power and expansion opportunities.

Asda

01/12/2005

Despite growing sales, Asda has continued to slip further behind market leader Tesco, with new management now in place aimed at recapturing market share.

Auchan

01/07/2005

Europe’s 8^th largest retailer is benefiting from its aggressive pricing policy whilst strengthening its presence in Europe and Asia.

Big Food Group

01/03/2005

Baugur recently completed its acquisition of The Big Food Group, incorporating the group into its portfolio as BFG’s sales continued to slide. 

Body Shop

01/09/2005

After a poor performance over recent years it appears that The Body Shop is entering a phase of recovery thanks to its £100m investment strategy, which has focused on a new format, new branding and improved marketing and merchandising.

Boots

01/08/2005

A challenging consumer environment has thrown Boots’ recovery programme into jeopardy, where despite modest sales growth, profits slipped again at the UK’s largest health & beauty chain.

Carrefour

01/01/2005

The world’s second largest retailer is continuing to grow, but looks set to miss annual targets amidst slower sales at its French hypermarkets and currency fluctuations in South America.

Casino

01/07/2005

Casino’s multi-format and increasingly international portfolio performed steadily last year, managing to increase sales and profits despite a difficult domestic economy.

Celesio

01/01/2005

Leading European pharmaceutical wholesaler and retailer Celesio has increased its profit forecast for 2004 and is expanding its European network through self-funded acquisitions.

Coles Myer

01/08/2005

Australia’s largest retailer is continuing to grow sales and profits through investment in new formats, cost cutting initiatives and customer loyalty programmes.

Compass

01/04/2005

A disappointing year for the world’s largest foodservice provider as challenging conditions in the UK and the group’s European markets, combined with higher costs hit operating profits and precipitated a September profits warning.

Coop Schweiz

01/10/2005

Operating in a weak retail environment, Switzerland’s second largest food retailer experienced a decrease in sales last year but continues to invest in store refurbishment and the expansion of its convenience and large-scale formats.

Co-operative

01/12/2005

A difficult period for the Co-operative Group, as the poor performance of the food retail division weighed heavily on the group’s bottom line.

Cora

01/06/2005

French retailer Cora is expanding operations in central Europe and is diversifying into the internet and services sector in France.

Costco

01/09/2005

Costco may miss its annual targets this year owing to high fuel prices, but the group continues to prove the value of customer loyalty as its strong membership renewals and high-end sales keep it ahead of rival SAM’S Club.

CVS

01/11/2005

CVS has boosted sales and profits through last year’s acquisition of Eckerd and is well positioned to benefit from the growing US prescription market.

Daiei

01/09/2005

Troubled Japanese retailer Daiei is now making a third attempt at restructuring its business in order to return to profit, seeking help from external sponsors and a new management team.

Dairy Farm International

01/11/2005

Troubled Japanese retailer Daiei is now making a third attempt at restructuring its business in order to return to profit, seeking help from external sponsors and a new management team.

Delhaize

01/02/2005

Belgian Group Delhaize is working to remodel and reposition many of its US stores in order to drive growth, which this year remains hampered by a weak dollar.

Dixons

01/03/2005

Despite increasing competition from the grocery multiples, Dixons has successfully managed to drive like-for-like sales growth, reversing the trend of recent years.

Dm Drogerie

01/09/2005

Germany’s second-largest drugstore chain is enjoying continued growth in its markets in Germany and central and eastern Europe. 

Dunnes

01/10/2005

Ireland’s largest retailer, family-owned Dunnes has been cutting prices amidst increasing competition from the discount sector. 

Edeka

01/06/2005

Germany’s third-largest retailer and co-operative organisation, Edeka, is expanding its business through the recent acquisition of the Spar and Netto chains from ITM.

Eroski

01/11/2005

Spanish retailer Eroski increased sales and profits last year through investment in expansion, store renovations and diversification

GUS

01/02/2005

An encouraging period for GUS as the group shrugged off a UK spending slowdown to post better than expected annual and interim results.

Hutchison Whampoa

01/12/2005

Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa continues to expand its business empire with all five of its core business (ports, property, retail & manufacturing, energy and telecommunications) reporting strong growth over the last year. 

Ito Yokado

01/08/2005

Japan’s second-largest retailer experienced a difficult year at its general merchandise stores and is now working on a reorganisation strategy, but continues to generate profits from its Seven-Eleven convenience stores, shopping centres and overseas expansion. 

JC Penney

01/08/2005

The second largest US department store chain is strengthening its position through a five-year strategic plan and swung back to profit this year after divesting of its non-core businesses.

Jerónimo Martins

01/12/2005

Having swung back into profit in 2003, Jerónimo Martins has focused on measures to improve efficiency and profitability amid fierce competition in the Portuguese food retail market.

John Lewis

01/07/2005

The John Lewis Partnership, celebrating its 75^th anniversary has posted encouraging sales growth on strong performances by both John Lewis and Waitrose.

Kesa Electricals

01/04/2005

Kesa succeeded in driving healthy sales and profit growth in this financial year, despite “challenging” conditions in the group’s core UK and French markets.

Kingfisher

01/10/2005

Despite failing to grow sales during the year, Kingfisher posted large gains in both pre-tax and operating profit in the first full-year since its de-merger from the loss-making Kesa electricals.

Kmart

01/04/2005

Sears Holdings Corp.  is the new name for Kmart, which in March 2005 completed a US$11.5bn acquisition of established department store chain Sears, Roebuck & Co. making it the third largest retailer in the US. 

Laurus

01/03/2005

Laurus, The Netherlands’ second-largest retailer, has been heavily impacted by investment to revamp its stores at a time when aggressive price wars rage in the Dutch grocery market.

Loblaw

01/04/2005

Laurus, The Netherlands’ second-largest retailer, has been heavily impacted by investment to revamp its stores at a time when aggressive price wars rage in the Dutch grocery market.

Marks & Spencer

01/08/2005

Despite the best efforts of Chief Executive Stuart Rose’s recovery strategy, intense competition combined with a difficult trading environment has caused Marks & Spencer’s market share to continue to slide.

Metcash

01/04/2005

Australia’s leading supplier to the independent retail sector recently had its hostile takeover bid for Foodland rejected, but is managing to grow sales despite tough competition from market leaders Coles Myer and Woolworths.

Metro

01/10/2005

Metro is growing its international business, but sales in its German domestic market are slowing amidst increased price competition and slow consumer spending.

Migros

01/02/2005

Switzerland’s largest retailer has increased its lead over rival Coop this year but is operating in a stagnating economic market.

Morrisons

01/05/2005

A year of upheaval for the WM Morrison Group as a profits warning precipitated board changes and renewed speculation on the succession of its Chairman Sir Ken Morrison.

Mothercare

01/02/2005

An encouraging year for Mothercare as the group posted modest gains in turnover, although sales more recently have slowed in the face of intense competition from the multiples.

Musgrave

01/10/2005

Musgrave is expanding its presence in Ireland with new store openings.  In the UK the group has been working to integrate its Londis and Budgens subsidiaries into a single organisation and to replicate Ireland’s organisational structure across its businesses.

Next

01/05/2005

A successful year for Next as strong sales growth, combined with improved cost control drove operating profit growth for the full-year.

Rewe

01/06/2005

Europe’s fourth-largest retailer grew sales by 4.1% last year driven by diversification and overseas investment and is ramping up its expansion strategy for 2005.

Safeway (US)

01/02/2005

US retailer Safeway continues to struggle against a prolonged economic downturn, losses at its Dominick’s operations and the continuing effects of last year’s workers strikes in southern California.

Sainsbury’s

01/07/2005

Despite posting declines in both turnover and pre-tax profit there are signs of recovery at Sainsbury’s as sales from continuing operations grew on price cutting and improvements in product availability.

Schlecker

01/07/2005

With the drugstore market in Germany relatively saturated, market leader Schlecker is beginning to close some of its smaller stores in order to focus on larger outlets. 

Schwarz (Lidl)

01/06/2005

Europe’s second-largest discounter and eleventh-largest retailer, the Schwarz Group is continuing to expand its successful Lidl and Kaufland formats to northern and central Europe, although sales in Germany finally appear to be stagnating.

Sears

01/05/2005

One of the best-known US department store chains, Sears was acquired in March 2005 by Kmart for US$11.5bn, creating a new company Sears Holdings Corp.

Seiyu

01/12/2005

A watershed year for Seiyu, Japan’s fourth-largest retailer as, in the face of a continuing poor performance, Wal-Mart increased its stake - making Seiyu a subsidiary.

Sobeys

01/03/2005

Canada’s second largest grocery retailer is lowering prices and remodelling stores to maintain momentum in an increasingly competitive environment.

Somerfield

01/09/2005

In the face of the ongoing takeover saga, Somerfield reported a mixed bag of results with some improvement in profit, although its recovery strategy failed to significantly drive sales growth.

Système U

01/05/2005

France’s third largest group of independent retailers is steadily growing business within France and aims to increase its share of the market to 10%.

Target

01/09/2005

US discounter and purveyor of “cheap chic” Target has seen its profits during the latest quarter grow faster than those of rival Wal-Mart.

Tengelmann

01/04/2005

Several years of restructuring at Tengelmann have brought the group’s European operations back into profit.  Now the family-run retailer plans accelerated expansion of its discount and DIY fascias into eastern Europe. 

Tesco

01/06/2005

A record breaking period for Tesco on strong performances internationally and in the non-food divisions, as the group became the British first retailer to break through the £2bn profit barrier. 

United Co-op

01/01/2005

A strong period for United, as the UK’s largest regional co-operative broke through the £900m half-year sales barrier.

Walgreen

01/11/2005

Leading US drugstore chain Walgreen is continuing its pace of rapid expansion, aiming to reach 7,000 stores by 2010.  Sales and profits for the group continue ahead of its rivals. 

Wal-Mart (1)

01/08/2005

The world’s largest retailer is continuing to expand rapidly but faces a recent sales slowdown in some of its established markets.

Wal-Mart (2)

01/01/2005

The world’s largest retailer continues to expand rapidly in the US, Europe and Asia and is increasingly benefiting from synergies afforded across its many businesses.

WH Smith

01/01/2005

A disappointing year for WH Smith as sales and profits continue to decline in the face of intense competitive pressure from the grocery multiples.

Woolworths Ltd. (Aus)

01/04/2005

Woolworths recently pleased analysts with strong first-half results and strengthened its portfolio through the acquisition of the Australian Leisure & Hospitality group. 

Woolworths Group (UK)

01/11/2005

An highly competitive high street retail environment, combined with operational disruption caused by the aborted takeover by Apax combined to cause a year of upheaval for the Woolworths Group.