Gopuff is on an acquisition spree. The Philadelphia-based grocery and everyday goods delivery company announced on Wednesday (Aug. 11) that it is acquiring a U.K.-based grocery delivery service that fulfills orders within 10 minutes.
The news follows the company’s acquisition in June of Kentucky alcoholic beverage chain Liquor Barn and of San Francisco’s rideOS, which builds technology for routing and dispatch services. Plus, in May, the company acquired another U.K.-based ultra-fast grocery delivery service, Fancy. This latest acquisition comes eight months after Dija’s founding in December 2020.
See also: Gopuff Expands Alcohol Delivery With Liquor Barn Acquisition
Read more: Gopuff Acquires RideOS To Bolster Its Last-Mile Logistics
“Combining Dija’s team of industry veterans, extensive infrastructure and local expertise will complement Gopuff’s proprietary technology and unique customer experience, and advance our ability to scale rapidly as we create a leading platform in Europe,” Gopuff’s SVP of Business Daniel Folkman said in a statement. “Together, we will continue to innovate and define the instant needs economy across Europe and bring the category to more customers in the region.”
Gopuff is currently valued at about $15 billion, having announced at the end of July that it had raised $1 billion in its most recent funding round. Its value has skyrocketed almost 70 percent from $8.9 billion back in March.
Target Launches Private-Label Pet Food
Target continues to grow its private-label grocery offerings — they are no longer just for humans. The retailer announced in a blog post on Wednesday (Aug. 11) that it is launching its own line of dog and cat food products, Kindfull, which will be available starting Sunday (Aug. 15).
“Kindfull highlights Target’s continued commitment to providing our guests with an incredible cross-category portfolio of owned brand options to choose from alongside their favorite national brands,” said ;.., Target’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, in a statement.
The line features over 50 products, including both wet and dry foods, and it is consistent with Target’s ongoing strategy to use its private-label offerings to differentiate the retailer from its competitors. Since the start of 2021, the company has expanded its private-label grocery offerings to launch a plant-based line under its quickly growing Good & Gather brand and to add an indulgent food-focused brand, Favorite Day.
Read more: Grocery Roundup: Private-Label Brands Take On Plant-Based Category
You might also like: Target Sweetens Private-Label Grocery Offerings To Boost Margins, Attract Partners
“Target’s owned brands grew approximately 36 percent in the first quarter, the strongest increase we’ve ever recorded,” Christina Hennington, Target’s executive vice president and chief growth officer, told analysts on the company’s most recent earnings call in May. “These brands aren’t something that our guests pick up while they’re at Target — they’re a big reason why they shop at Target, which is why we continue to invest in them.”
Foxtrot Establishes Nationwide Presence With ‘Foxtrot Anywhere’
On Monday (Aug. 9), omnichannel convenience store chain and delivery service Foxtrot Market, which operates in Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C., launched “Foxtrot Anywhere,” an online shop that ships select products nationwide.
The shop contains two main categories — its “Made by Foxtrot” private-label gift boxes and add-ons and its “Curated by Foxtrot” gift boxes, all of which consumers can send with a personalized notecard.
Discussing his vision for the Foxtrot private-label brand, Mitch Madoff, the retailer’s senior vice president of private label and supply chain, told PYMNTS in a May interview, “It’s a lot about bringing joy to the everyday and how we can reimagine private label … So while today, they’re doing a little bit of a hybrid of curators and makers, I really want to see us excel and become more makers in our products.”
You may also like: Foxtrot Gets Whole Foods Exec To Build Private-Label Brand Arsenal
Still, the curation — both in the retailer’s pre-existing online and brick-and-mortar selection and in its new Foxtrot Anywhere nationwide option — is inherent to the company’s vision of the next-gen C-store. As the company’s Founder and CEO Mike LaVitola told PYMNTS in March, the focus on local artisans is “like the core of the company.” He added that when the company first launched, it was looking to recreate the traditional C-store selection, “but with a much more curated and local take.”
Kroger Expands Google Maps Partnership For Grocery Pickup
As grocers compete to integrate omnichannel purchasing options into consumers’ lives as seamlessly as possible, Kroger has just made a major move. The company has partnered with Google, adding grocery pickup order-tracking capabilities through Google Maps at almost 100 of the grocer’s locations.
Through the feature, consumers add their Kroger mobile order to the navigation app, which will then notify consumers when it is time to leave to pick up their order, reports Northern Kentucky’s The River City News. It will also notify the store of the customer’s expected arrival time.
The partnership includes 96 stores in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, and a Google spokesperson told Grocery Dive that the feature will be added to more Kroger-owned stores in months to come.
In June, Kroger began piloting this partnership with the tech company, integrating pickup orders with the navigation app at two locations of the grocer’s Fred Meyer chain in Portland, Oregon.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More