Ahold Delhaize

Despite flat revenues and comparable-store sales growth of 5.0 percent at its Belgian locations for the second quarter of fiscal 2010, retail conglomerate Delhaize Group experienced losses at its still economically depressed U.S. operations. Company president and CEO Pierre-Olivier Beckers noted last week, however, that the grocer was making “steady progress” with its New Game Plan, which has so far included the restructuring of Delhaize’s American business.

To help its shoppers easily get everything they need in the way of office and back-to-school supplies, Food Lion banners Food Lion, Bloom, Harveys and Reid’s will now carry over 200 OfficeMax products year-round.

To settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that its recent acquisition of 79 stores from the Penn Traffic Co. was anticompetitive in several areas of New York and Pennsylvania, Tops Markets, LLC has agreed to sell seven of the supermarkets.

A new promotion from Delhaize America gives shoppers across its banners in 16 southeastern states the opportunity to win as much as $250,000 in prizes.

Sustainable seafood sourcing is moving to the forefront for a variety of supermarket companies, including The Kroger Co., which has made the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s (GAA) Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification for farmed seafood a key element of its seafood procurement policy, and Delhaize America, whose seven banner groups will soon require suppliers to verify that products come from sources managed for sustainability and encourage local sourcing.

Green Hills’ in-store Center for Advanced Retail Technology (CART) has formed a new partnership with Ikan Technologies, a Stamford, Conn.-based technology vendor that provides a wi-fi-enabled kitchen unit allowing consumers to scan items as they’re discarded, and then generates a shopping list based on what’s thrown away.

All of the divisions of Delhaize America — Hannaford, Sweetbay, Bottom Dollar Food, and Food Lion’s family of banners, consisting Food Lion, Bloom, Harveys and Reid’s — are adopting a new seafood program that will require suppliers to verify that products come from sources managed for sustainability and encourage sourcing locally.

Delhaize America has signed a three-year contract with Catalyst Rx, the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) subsidiary of Rockville, Md.-based Catalyst Health Solutions, Inc., under the terms of which Catalyst will continue to manage pharmacy benefits for the Delhaize-owned Food Lion grocery chain’s 55,000 members and begin doing the same for sister banner Hannaford Bros. Co.’s 20,000 members on Jan. 1, 2011.