Planet Retail 2 May 2008

According to unconfirmed reports in the Polish press, retailers such as Tesco and Carrefour have suspended investments in the country as the law on large-surface stores (WOH) has not yet been abolished. The ruling coalition declared before the elections that it would withdraw the law, which was passed by the previous parliament and limited the building of stores larger than 400 square metres. However, the law is still valid, even though there have been no specific regulations issued, which blocks permission applications and makes expansion by both foreign and Polish companies difficult.

Planet Retail 7 Mar 2008

Romanian food unions have accused supermarket chains of anti-trade practices which have cut their profits. An inquiry has been set up to address the high cost of listing fees, promotional services etc. They are also complaining about conditions in contracts which do not allow producers and manufacturers to supply other shops at cheaper prices. The unions have asked for a "code of good trade practice" for the supermarkets, which should be approved by the Competition Authority, and the Ministries of Agriculture and Finance. They also threatened to take the issue to the European Parliament, as well as to the European Commission.

Foodproductiondaily.com. 20-Feb-2008

Russia-based Wimm-Bill-Dann has announced the opening of what it calls a $12m mega dairy farm outside of St. Petersburg as part of a wider focus on stepping up the supply of high quality milk for its operations.

Planet Retail 8 Jan 2008

A1 Group, a subsidiary company of the Alfa Group (which owns X5 Retail Group), and Finance Corporation IFC are is going to launch a supermarket store network in Belarus. As the A1 Group project manager Alexander Vinogradov has stated, the company plans to launch 128 soft discount supermarkets by 2010, with an investment of USD83 million. The stores will have an average sales area of 500 square metres and will be located in the cities of Minsk, Brest, Gomel and Vitebsk.

Planet Retail 8 Jan 2008

The head of the Latvian Traders Association (LTA), Henriks Danusevics, has said that Wal-Mart is not going to launch in the country for the time being and is focussing on other new EU member states, for example, Bulgaria and Slovenia, as well as Serbia.

A successful seminar was organised in Budapest on rural poverty co-organized by the Regoverning Markets Project.

Planet Retail 22 November 2007

The Russian Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Belousov yesterday said that the ministry will submit for discussion to other government agencies next month a bill to tighten anti-trust laws in the retail sector. Under the bill, the threshold for defining a company as having significant market power would be cut to a 15% share of a market from a 35% share, he said. Companies that have significant market power are subject to regulation by antitrust authorities. The bill will also seek to set up an agency to regulate the retail industry. Additionally, the bill is expected to remove some bureaucratic hurdles hampering the opening of retail outlets, he said.

Planet Retail 21 Nov 07

According to reports in the Romanian press, citing the managing director of Auchan's local unit, Regis Mougel, the retailer is targeting 22 cities in the country with more than 100,000 inhabitants by 2010 and will continue to launch larger sales areas in its hypermarkets in order to compete with direct rivals.

Planet Retail 7 November 2007

According to reports in the Baltic press, Maxima has decided to withdraw from the code of good business practice for retail chains. The code was signed in March this year with the aim of ensuring that retailers offered fair prices.

Planet Retail 3 October 2007

According to reports in the Polish press, citing the director of Carrefour's local operation, Alain Souillard, the retailer is to launch a franchised convenience store format in the country. The company is initially to develop 20-40 stores by the end of 2008 with an area of between 80 square metres and 500 square metres under the '5 minutes' banner.