General
German distribution group Rewe has seen its sales shoot up by more than 20 % last year. Gross profit rose as well, despite major losses in the group's travel division.
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Whilst everyone is counting down the days to the end of the Covid crisis, the retail industry should brace itself for a huge wave of closures. Analysts from stockbroking firm UBS predict "at least tens of thousands" of store closures as a result of the permanent shift in consumer behaviour; their colleagues in other countries agree.
Electronics
Media Markt and Saturn continue their cost-cutting course: in the German home market, 13 stores are closing, and 1,000 employees are losing their jobs. The retailer is also cutting some jobs in Belgium, but no Belgian outlets will be closed.
Upheaval in Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel has already withdrawn the "Easter break" announced earlier this week, which would involve shutting down the country almost completely for five days.
Food
Out of fear of a third wave, Germany is going to tighten its Covid-19 measures again. From 1 to 5 April, public life will be largely paralysed, and even food stores will have to remain closed for four of the five days.
Fashion
Last year Zalando grew by 30 per cent thanks to a quarter more customers. The e-commerce player expects to keep up the momentum and even triple sales from ten to thirty billion euros by 2025.
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is receiving hundreds of millions of euros in state aid. With the importance of the department store group for town centres as the main argument, although not everyone is convinced.
For the first time, Amazon has bought its own aircraft: 11 used passenger Boeings are converted into cargo aeroplanes. The e-commerce giant is also flying to Europe: in Germany, Amazon Air is now leasing two planes.
Dutch online retailer Coolblue is continuing its German expansion. Deliveries are now also possible in the area around Cologne, while a first physical store in Germany is planned to open soon.
CEO Ignazio Paternò is leaving Lidl, officially because of the commute between Italy and Germany. However, there are rumours about internal tensions - and not for the first time.
Food in supermarkets is too cheap: a message that you would expect from farmers or fairtrade organisations, but this time it comes from German discounter Penny. A lot of food products would cost twice as much if the damage to the environment is included, and the retailer therefore doubles some of its prices.
Belgian fruit and vegetable producer Greenyard and German retailer Rewe are starting a joint venture to deliver the former's products to the latter's stores.
Olaf Koch, CEO of German retailer Metro, is resigning at the end of the year. As he will not complete his current term that only ends in 2022, the German retail giant will have to quickly start looking for a successor.
Aldi is suffering from a swing from discounters to convenience, induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. It now trials a 24/7 vending machine called "ALDImat", to compensate for its shorter opening hours. It will offer forty products, focusing on barbecue and breakfast emergencies.
Ceconomy (the former Metro branch that owns electronics chains Media Markt and Saturn) has announced a thorough restructuring, which may cause up to 3,500 jobs being cut and several stores closed all over Europe.
A strong second quarter has led Zalando to increase its forecasts to a full-year sales growth of 15 to 20 %. The German webshop was helped by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced a lot of people to shop online.
