As a result of the divestment of its margarine division, Unilever saw its quarterly turnover fall 1.6 % to 12.4 billion euros, which is a better result than analysts had expected. CEO Alan Jope saw enough good reasons to call this a ”solid start” to 2019.

A number of Belgian (IJsboerke, Jules Destrooper) and foreign (Lavazza en Ferrero) food producers have been blackmailed with letters sent from Belgium, demanding 300,000 euros to keep their products from being poisoned.

Furniture chain Ikea wants to open a small city store in Brussels city centre, Ingka Group CEO Jesper Brodin says. However, the retailer wants to test first which concepts would work best in such a store.

Virtual and augmented reality make shoppers more inclined to buy things, a new Belgian PhD study shows. “VR and AR fill in the gaps of traditional marketing”, the University of Brussels study finds.

The North Face is looking to turn Earth Day, which is celebrated on 22 April, into an official public holiday. To lend added weight to its aspirations, the outdoor brand is set to keep its 113 stores in the United States closed on the day, to enable all workers and customers to “disconnect”.

Saks Off 5th, the outlet chain of Hudson’s Bay subsidiary Saks Fifth Avenue, is closing all its European stores. The chain currently still has shops in The Netherlands and in Germany. Meanwhile, rumours say owner HBC is the next chain to leave the Netherlands.

British sports chain JD Sports enjoyed an enormous increase in turnover last year: it increased by no less than 49.2% to 4.7 billion pounds (5.4 billion euros). Gross profit growth was slightly lower, but amounted to more than a quarter.

French luxury icon families Arnault (LVMH) and Pinault (Kering) are springing to the aid of Notre-Dame in Paris, which has been damaged by fire. Together they have already donated 300 million euros for the reconstruction of the iconic cathedral.

Zalando is introducing shipping costs in Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom, following an earlier test in Italy. This seems to mark the end of the free era, even though the German company says there are no plans to further expand the measure.

Beerwulf, a Dutch speciality beers web shop, is expanding into five new countries: Austria, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland join the five countries where the web shop is already active.

During the first three months of 2019, German fashion web shop Zalando has exceeded expectations and expects to have made a profit after tightening its return policy.

German fashion chain bonprix, part of the Otto Group, has seen its turnover increase for the tenth year in succession. Eastern Europe has been particularly good for the company. Bonprix is also optimistic for the coming year.

Streetwear label Weekday has opened a new store of 400 sqm in Leuven. The H&M subsidiary has adapted its store concept to cater for the Belgian city's student population.

Employees have again gone on strike at four of Amazon’s German distribution centres. The German trade union Ver.di has been demanding higher wages and better labour conditions for years.

Over 30,000 staff at Stop & Shop, an American supermarket chain that belongs to Belgian-Dutch Ahold Delhaize, have been on strike since Thursday as they protest against the low wages and the rising health insurance premiums. The chain is planning to implement substantial cost-cutting measures.

Primark's second Brussels store - the seventh in Belgium - can only be described in superlatives. With 5,500 sqm of retail floor space, 48 cash registers and 60 changing rooms, the Irish fashion retailer has certainly spared no expense.

Supermarket chain Walmart wants to start using more robots for a number of repetitive tasks such as cleaning and checking shelves, allowing the staff to spend more time on sales and helping customers.

For the first time in years, Apple is no longer number one in the list of the most innovative companies in the world as compiled by Boston Consulting Group. The new champion is Google, followed by Amazon. Both companies are heavily invested in artificial intelligence.  

Levi Strauss, better known as Levi's, will be opening another 100 stores, mostly in Europe and China. The brand is doing extremely well and sold 7% more products in the past quarter.

This week, Primark's biggest store opened in Birmingham. Besides the store's vast size, its integrated customer experience should turn it into a major success.

Amazon has thousands of employees who listen to users' recorded commands to improve the algorithms of voice assistant Alexa. Of course, they do get to hear a lot of sensitive material that way.

Unbeatable prices in a low-cost environment: that's the Carrefour Essentiel concept in a nutshell. The retailer is currently testing the new formula in Avignon as one of the possible avenues to save Carrefour's unprofitable hypermarkets.

British cosmetics company Lush has decided to close various social media accounts in the United Kingdom.

Amazon Go, Amazon's registerless stores, will be accepting cash in some form after all. The elitist flair of the shops has been heavily criticised and various cities and states in the US actually forbid cash-free stores.

Wessanen has been acquired by a syndicate of investors led by French group PAI Partners. The French were willing to spend 885 million euros on the Dutch natural nutrition specialist.

Tesco breathes a sigh of relief as the British supermarket group is well underway towards reaching its transformation goals. Turnover and profits both increased in the past financial year.

In the first quarter of 2019, meal order platform Takeaway.com processed 51% more orders, reaching a total of 31.1 million orders. The meal delivery service is currently investing in the German market.

Hema had a bumpy ride last year: comparable turnover dropped and losses increased due to the change in ownership. The department store chain is therefore making some bold choices: it's selling its bakeries and developing wholesale activities for the first time.

Decathlon will be opening a new warehouse for the Dutch market. Previously, orders in the Netherlands were delivered from Belgium, but the sports chain is changing that procedure. The warehouse will open in Tilburg.

A new study has shown that women in Vietnamese garment factories are systematically being sexually harassed and abused. A highly important factor in this situation are the working conditions in the factories.

Department store chain Debenhams is carrying a massive debt load, but still the chain has rejected Mike Ashley's ultimate plan to save it. That means the company is now under the control of the creditors.