News

Dutch supermarket operator Jumbo is introducing handheld scanners games turning grocery shopping into fun for children aged three to eight. The retailer plans to roll out the feature across all its 700+ stores across the Netherlands and Belgium by next year.

Tesco has appointed Chris Blatchford as its future Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This was reported by the British journal The Grocer. The current incumbent, Guus Dekkers, will step down from his role in December 2026 and retire.

Aldi Nord’s German country operation has appointed Dirk Fust as Vice-CEO and entrusted him with board-level responsibility for the discount retailer’s national IT and logistics. The former Lidl manager has taken over the procurement, sales, supply chain management and marketing departments from Oktawian Torchala.

Thalia has automated its new omnichannel hub in Marl using Germany’s largest AutoStore system. As main contractor, Element Logic has implemented the intralogistics solution, integrating 530 R5 robots, 280,000 container spaces and the connected conveyor system.

British Co-operative Group has selected digital commerce data specialist Estore Brands to launch Co-op Catalyst. This analytics platform, set to open in late 2026, will give suppliers direct access to the retailer’s own quick-commerce data.

Kesko has commissioned Austrian intralogistics specialist Knapp to automate its planned new logistics centre. With the new facility in the municipality of Nurmijärvi, north of Helsinki, the Finnish grocery retailer aims to make its supply chain more efficient and flexible, preparing it for further growth.

JB Hi-Fi plans to roll out Vusion’s technology across all its stores in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian electronics retailer has announced the full-scale rollout following a successful pilot phase.

British retailer Iceland is deploying AI-powered dynamic markdown technology from Retail Insight to reduce food waste and improve the sell-through of products approaching their expiry dates.

Morrisons has appointed Mohsen Ghasempour as its first Chief AI Officer. He will take up the newly created role on 1 October 2026 and report to CEO Rami Baitiéh. In the post, Mohsen Ghasempour will establish a central data science and AI function.

Since beginning of this week, Amazon has been blocking Meta’s new AI agent Muse from gaining access to its shopping pages. The company had previously tried in vain to persuade Facebook’s parent company to voluntarily refrain from allowing the bot to make purchases on behalf of consumers at its online shop. This highlights just how fiercely companies are fighting for…