REWE Suspends Contract With German Football Association Over Armbands Row
ESM - European Supermarket Magazine
The industry magazine for C-suite executives and procurement managers working in the European grocery retail sector.
Retailer?REWE Group?has?suspended its sponsorship?of the German Football Association (DFB), after FIFA cracked down on players wearing 'OneLove' armbands in support of diversity at the?Qatar?World Cup. The move by?REWE, which boasts group-wide annual sales of €76.5 billion, makes it the first sponsor to take action after FIFA threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing the multi-coloured armband at the?World Cup.
Rémy Cointreau?has?reported?a stronger-than-expected 27.2% organic jump in first-half operating profit, driven by strong demand for its premium?cognac?in China and the United States and cost controls. For the full year of 2022/23, the maker of?Rémy Martin?cognac and Cointreau liqueur reiterated it expected another year of strong organic sales growth, with the second half set to reflect a return to normal consumption trends after two years of 'exceptional growth'.
Lidl?reported a 0.3 percentage point increase in market share in?France?in October, to 8.3%,?new data?from?Kantar?has revealed, making the discounter the best-performing grocer in the period. Data for the P11 period (October 3 to 30) found that?Aldi?also had a strong month, growing its market share by 0.2 percentage points to 2.8%. Elsewhere, Groupement?Les Mousquetaires, which holds 16.7% of the French grocery market, gained 0.2 percentage points. Other retailers that saw a marginal increase were Groupement U,?Carrefour?and market leader?E.Leclerc, which each saw their market share rise by 0.1 percentage points, to 11.4%, 19.3% and 22.0% respectively.
With an average price tag of more than $63 million (€61.3 million), most brands have been 'priced out' of?sponsorship?of this year's?World Cup,?a study?by GlobalData claims. This year's tournament, which kicked off with a 2-0 win for Ecuador over hosts?Qatar?at the weekend, will see 27 official brand sponsorship partners avail of prime marketing rights, spending around $1.7 billion (€1.66 billion) in the process,?GlobalData?said in its?Business of the FIFA 2022 World Cup?report. However, the high price of sponsorship means that 15 of these 27 core sponsors are making their World Cup debut this year, with many longstanding partners put off by the high price tag.
Seafood giant?Thai Union Group?has?announced?that it has converted its loan-based strategic investment in Iceland's?Aegir Seafood?Company into a 50% shareholding. The move will see Thai Union consolidate its business relationship with the seafood company. Thai Union invested in Aegir Seafood in 2019, and since then, the Icelandic company has made a substantial contribution to the growth of Thai Union's brands and private label business, particularly its King Oscar and Rügen Fisch brands, the John West parent noted.
Spanish?retailer Mercadona?reduced?its?carbon footprint?by 38% last year, the company said in a statement. Mercadona?has measured its emissions on an ongoing basis from 2015 to 2021, within its commitment to the Paris Agreement towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To help reduce its footprint, the group said it has installed 9,000 solar panels at its stores, along with implementing efficient and?sustainable?refrigeration systems with transcritical and subcritical CO2. It also closely monitors refrigerant gas leaks.
More Sustainability Stories:
Reader feedback:
We invite and encourage our LinkedIn newsletter readers to chime in with their comments and feedback, which we may feature in this section in future editions.
Feel free to comment below or write to us [email protected].
Most read by subscribers this week:
The latest issue of our magazine is out now
In the?September/October 2022?issue of?ESM, we chat to Hani Weiss, chief executive of the multinational?Majid Al Futtaim Retail?business; catch up with outgoing?ICA?Sweden?CEO Anders Svensson; explore Europe’s most -chosen brands in the?Kantar Brand Footprint?report; and examine a recent INSEAD report about?buying alliances. We also feature our annual?World of Food and Drink?report, which this year incorporates a preview of?SIAL Paris, making a welcome return for the first time since 2018.
Enjoyed this newsletter?
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter,?Retail Digest.
Subscribe to?ESM: European Supermarket Magazine, and?enjoy unlimited digital access for 30 days.