Global round-up: H1 2025 results, NPD and new store formats

Europe: discounter initiatives, and positive H1 results

Lidl to open its first non-food store

The German discounter is opening a new ‘home & living’ test store in the town of Lottstetten. The 500 sq m store will showcase Lidl’s private label brands including Parkside DIY, Crivit health & leisure and SilverCrest household ranges. It will also feature branded short-term promotions.

Dan Butler, Senior Insight Analyst’s view:

Lots of grocery retailers have tried and failed with these store concepts in the past, so it is a surprising direction for Lidl. The store does have some strong private label activation, and I expect the test could lead to future implementation into the non-grocery aisles of its core estate.

Aldi to launch specialist outlet zones in Polish stores

Starting 1^st August, 30 Aldi locations across Poland will offer household items, toys, clothing, and home décor at discounted prices. Shoppers will be able to enjoy savings of up to 50%, and the campaign will run while stocks last.

Michela Pearson, Insight Analyst’s view:

Non-food is a struggling category for the discounters, and ‘rethinking non-grocery’ is one of IGD’s five global trends for the discount channel in 2025. This initiative points towards Aldi’s Polish operation struggling to shift some of its rotating promotional assortment and looking for ways to entice shoppers. This is not a unique issue: in Switzerland, Aldi announced it would be reducing its non-food offering in favour of expanding its core food assortment, while in the UK, it is selling unsold stock to Salvation Army charity shops. It is likely we will see further changes to this model in the near future.

Groupe Casino sees positive results in H1 25

Following years of financial difficulties, the French retailer saw 0.5% like-for-like growth in the first six months of 2025. This was predominantly driven by stronger growth in Q2, with sales uplift of 2.4%, vs Q2 2024, to €2.08 bn. The group’s convenience banners helped drive positive increases in net sales, with a 2.7% increase. Despite overall sales being down 2.7%, the group’s EBIDTA was up 12.2%.

Michela Pearson, Insight Analyst’s view:

Groupe Casino has undergone significant restructuring to turn around its poor performance. It closed or sold over 800 stores and announced a new ‘Renouveau 2028’ strategic plan with a focus on its key convenience banners. The new strategy seems to be yielding initial positive results, with hopes that this will further improve throughout the rest of 2025. The retailer also recently announced it would be opening over 200 convenience stores in Morocco over the next 10 years, strengthening its overseas position in the channel.

Asia-Pacific: private label developments, store formats, and DFI’s results

FairPrice Singapore introduces private label snacks promotions

FairPrice has launched 12-week long promotions across various private label snacks to coincide with Singapore’s 60^th National Day celebrations. In addition to weekly promotions offering 50% off on selected snacks, new local flavours of potato chips were introduced, such as Black Pepper Crab, Laksa, and Kopi (coffee).

Jarred Neubronner, Senior Insight Analyst’s view:

FairPrice has made great strides in growing its private label range in recent years, which now accounts for around 20% of its revenue. Its private label promotions help to showcase value in a time of concerns about expenses and tariff wars. Innovative product development of local private label snacks flavours creates added excitement for FairPrice’s assortment and helps to differentiate it from competitors.

CU ferry-based convenience stores see H1 growth

In October 2024, CU opened a 33 sq m convenience store on two ferries that carry passengers between South Korea and China. The store stocks around 1,500 SKUs including liquor, snacks, food-to-go, Korean souvenirs and more. These ferry-based convenience stores’ sales in H1 2025 have risen 26% compared to its first openings in October 2024.

Sabrina Wong, Analyst’s view:

CU has experimented with different store formats since 2023 to tap into underutilised locations and occasions. Along with its previous trial of deploying mobile c-stores to festivals and concerts, these new store formats have successfully occasions and venues where food and beverage options are less accessible.

DFI Retail Group H1 sales remain flat in H1 2025

DFI reported largely flat sales of USD$4.39 bn in H1 2025, vs USD$4.40 bn in H1 2024. Despite this, the group saw strong momentum in Health & Beauty, driven by its private label rebrands and expansion in Southeast Asia. Highlights from H1 include convenience focusing on ready-to-eat, with food bars planned for South China and Wellcome Hong Kong launching an EDLP (everyday low price) strategy to counter regional competition. Digital growth accelerated leading to increased ecommerce order volumes and retail media gained traction. Divestments in Yonghui, Robinsons Retail, and Singapore Food are expected to free up capacity for future strategic investments.

Stephanie Leung, Insight Analyst’s view:

While revenue remained flat, DFI’s strategic shifts are promising. The Health & Beauty segment’s growth and digital acceleration show adaptability to consumer trends. Divestments suggest a sharper focus on core strengths and highlight potential for reinvestment. The EDLP strategy in Hong Kong is a proactive move to defend market share, and Retail Media and ecommerce expansion reflect a forward-looking approach. Overall, DFI appears to be navigating macroeconomic uncertainty with a balanced mix of operational discipline and innovation, positioning itself well for long-term resilience and growth.

North America: Amazon’s Q2 growth, supply chain developments, and Loblaw’s new partnership

Amazon enjoyed a positive Q2, with 13% growth in net sales

This growth resulted in USD$167.7 bn worth of net sales, and an operating income of USD$19.2 bn (+31% vs Q2 2024). Sales growth was driven predominantly by the AWS segment, which saw an uplift of 17.5%, while International sales and North America sales increased by 16% and 11% respectively. Each year Amazon continues to break Prime Day records, and this year was no exception as it was the ‘biggest ever with record sales, number of items sold and number of prime sign-ups in the 3 weeks leading up to the Prime Day’.

Michaela Jay, Insight Manager’s view:

Amazon’s AWS performance is no surprise as the retailer continues to heavily invest in this part of the business. Amazon is also continually focused on selection, low prices and delivery speeds to drive overall performance. In its Q2 earnings call, it announced a global speed record of delivering to Prime members at its fastest ever speeds, with 30% more items delivered on the same day or next day vs Q2 2024. The retailer is looking to bolster this further with plans to expand same-day and next-day delivery across the US and Europe. Read more about Amazon's strategy.

Loblaw overhauls optical offer with Specsavers deal

Specsavers will open 111 new optical locations in Loblaw grocery stores across Canada, replacing Theodore & Pringle, Loblaw’s legacy in-store optical brand. The rollout will introduce Specsavers to five new provinces, significantly expanding its national footprint which has grown to over 150 stores since entering the market in 2021.

Stewart Samuel, Director of Retail Futures’ view:

Loblaw is making a decisive shift by retiring its Theodore & Pringle brand. Partnering with Specsavers expands access to advanced eye care services and brings consumer trust, along with marketing power. This move also aligns with Loblaw’s broader strategy to enhance its larger-format stores. The retailer has been investing in non-food categories such as beauty, baby, and toys, areas where brand-led differentiation and service integration can drive incremental growth.

Pilgrim's to invest USD$400m in Prepared Foods facility in Georgia, US

Pilgrim's, a subsidiary of JBS, has announced a USD$400m investment into creating a new production and manufacturing facility for its prepared food business. The facility will focus on fully Cooked Chicken products and fuel expansion on brands such as Just Bare, Pilgrim's and Gold Kist, through both retail and food-service channels. No firm date has been set for opening but hiring is expected to commence in early 2027.

James Rothwell, Head of Supply Chain Insights' view:

Pilgrim's investment to focus on Cooked Chicken products will drive its overall scale and efficiency within the state. Pilgrim's currently operates seven other sites in the state and has a network of linked hatcheries and feeding mills in the area. We can expect the move to bring greater efficiencies to its supply chain and overall production planning, while also allowing significant room for growth at the other sites to specialize in other product ranges.