Italian Coop Italia and Belgian Delhaize have joined European distributor Coopernic, of which French E.Leclerc was the only company for almost a year.
Coopernic was created in 2006 and is presented as “the first alliance of European distribution retailers”. However they lost 4 of their five founders in January : German Rewe, Italian Conad, Swiss Coop and Belgian Colyrut, who grouped together under a new structure.
Leclerc will remain the major actor within the cooperative with their $45.6 billion turnover last year. Delhaize, one of the main Belgian retailers made $20.9 billion in sales in 2013. They announced a “collective dismissal of 2,500 collaborators” in June, before losing $45 million in the second trimester.
Coop is Italy’s number one retailer with over 8 million consumers, with a €12.7 billion turnover.
Coopernic stated that the three groups intended to improve the production of their own brands, optimise, “commercial conditions with international suppliers” and find “synergies” with non food products.
In France, Auchan and Système U, respectively the country’s 5th and 6th placed retailers, announced at the start of the month that they were going to join forces to buy products that they both share together.