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Group was recently acquired by Inspire Brands, a private equity-backed restaurant company that owns Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and SONIC Drive-In, reported Reuters. The all-cash deal is valued at $8.76 billion. • Ferrero North America recently announced plans to build a new chocolate manufacturing center in Bloomington, Illinois. It will be Ferrero’s first chocolate production plant in North America, and will allow the company to produce chocolate for Crunch,100Grand, SnoCaps, Raisinets, Goobers, Ferrero Rocher and other Ferrero products. • American cookie consumption has increased by over 25 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1 in 5 Americans consuming over 3 cookies per day, according to a new study by TOP Data. • Voters in New Jersey and Arizona legalized marijuana for recreational use on Election day, November 3, and in Oregon approved a measure to decriminalize small amounts of heroin and other street drugs, reported Reuters. • Lowe’s paid $100 million in employee bonuses in November, its sixth round of pandemic-related bonuses, reported Business Insider. The home improvement retailer paid $300 to full-time hourly employees and $150 to parttimers or seasonal workers. • Kroger Health, the healthcare division of The Kroger Co., recently announced the launch of COVID19 rapid antibody testing across its family of pharmacies to help inform patients if they have previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID19. The FDA-authorized rapid antibody tests— conducted using a finger-prick blood sample—are now available at all Kroger pharmacies and clinics. • Walmart has apparently ended its contract with Bossa Nova Robotics, the company that provided shelfscanning machines to its stores, and plans to replace the machines with continued on page 58
of respondents noting they now have more control over their portion sizes and that they are now more aware of the snacks their bodies need (64 percent). ● Snacks are also nourishing their “body, mind and soul during these strange times,” (64 percent), with immunityboosting snacks particularly top of mind (56 percent), and nearly two thirds of respondents noted that snacking has given them “much needed moments” to themselves (65 percent).
Couche-Tard Earnings Jump 32 Percent For its second quarter of fiscal 2021, Circle K parent company Alimentation Couche-Tard announced net earnings
of $757.0 million, compared with $578.6 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2020. Adjusted net earnings were approximately $735.0 million compared with $569.0 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2020, representing an increase of 32 percent. e company said the increase was driven by strong growth in merchandise, service and in road transportation fuel gross profit, as well as by good cost control. Couche-Tard also reported total merchandise and service revenues of $3.8 billion, an increase of 6.3 percent. Same-store merchandise revenues increased 4.4 percent in the U.S., 8.6 percent in Europe, and 11.4 percent in Canada. Merchandise and service gross margin increased 0.1 percent in the U.S. continued on page 58
San Diego FOA
The San Diego FOA recently held elections for its Board of Directors. Pictured is the new Board for 2021. Front row, (left to right): Bobby Brar, Tejal Shah, Vijay Booter. Middle row: Varun Desai, Raj Hundal, Bic Sidhu, Sukhminder Dhillon, Harjinder Singh, Raad Khalaf. Back row: Amir Mousevi, Gurpreet Singh, James Chhina, Ram Chillar. Inset: San Diego FOA 2021 officers. AVANTI N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0
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