Intermarché and Auchan announced on Tuesday their merger “to discuss the bases of a long-term purchasing alliance”, with the aim of creating the first French purchasing center, according to a joint press release. “The scope of discussions includes in particular the negotiation on the purchase of consumer food products from major national brands and the negotiation on the purchase of non-food products,” according to the press release from the two distributors, who are also associated for a purchase of stores from the Casino group in serious financial difficulty.
“This project aims to create the first French purchasing center in order to best defend the interests of consumers,” add Intermarché and Auchan in their press release, which confirms information from La Lettre. These discussions “complement” an alliance that already exists between Intermarché and Casino through the Auxo purchasing center, continue the two brands. At the end of November, Auchan and Intermarché confirmed a joint offer to buy all the hypermarkets and supermarkets not yet sold by the distributor Casino.
Intermarché already agreed with Casino a few months ago for the purchase of 119 of its stores, plus around sixty as an option. Around sixty have already changed brands at the beginning of October. The announcement from Auchan and Intermarché on Tuesday on purchases comes as Casino employees demonstrated on Tuesday in the Paris region and in Saint-Étienne, where the group’s headquarters are located, fearing a “slice sale” of the business.
Competition is very strong between major retail brands, exacerbated by inflation which for months has brought the sector leader, E.Leclerc, to a pace that its competitors are trying to follow, including by buying stores in order to to increase their market share other than through commercial performance alone.