News

Globus Markthallen has appointed Björn Winterhalter as Managing Director of IT. The computer science graduate will take up the position on 1 April 2027 at the latest, succeeding Jens Berger, who has left the retail company. Björn Winterhalter is currently still Head of IT at Tegut. The Fulda-based grocery retailer is currently in liquidation, with its stores being divided amongst…

Schwarz Digits is trialling a rail installed on the store ceiling in a Lidl store in England, which combines shop lighting with camera technology. The so-called Camera Rail is manufactured by Pyramid Computer.

Schwarz Digits has entered into a strategic partnership with Fujitsu for sovereign digital infrastructures in Europe. In 2023, Fujitsu had already moved closer to Schwarz Group through its majority takeover of Lidl’s POS software supplier, GK Software.

Swedish ICA Group is testing a robot from start-up Cota Robotics, which is designed to restock shelves autonomously. ICA’s Innovation Division is conducting initial live trials at retailer Peter Dinehage’s ICA Nära Roslagstull store in Stockholm. The robot is set to work overnight for the project, so that the shelves are already stocked when the store opens.

NCR Voyix supplied the largest number of self-checkouts to the European retail sector in 2025. Diebold Nixdorf follows in second place, whilst 4POS Pan Oston Group, based in Switzerland and the Netherlands, comes third. These are findings from the latest ‘Global EPOS and Self-Checkout’ study by Datos Insights, which analyses hardware deliveries to the retail sector in 2025. In 2025,…

Kesko has chosen the ActiveWarehouse solution from Manhattan Associates to replace its outdated, batch-based warehouse management system at the distribution centres of its grocery retail operations. The Finnish retail group plans to initially roll out the cloud-native solution, which includes agent-based AI capabilities, at five distribution centres.

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.