The growing importance of the discount food retail format for France's leading supermarket groups was underlined today with the announcement of an agreement between Carrefour, the country's biggest food retailer, and Germany's Edeka group.
Press reports say that Carrefour's discount store unit Ed has signed a memorandum of understanding to buy 44 discount stores from Edeka for an undisclosed sum.
The stores currently operate under the Treff Marché brand are based in the border regions of Alsace, Franche-Comté and Lorraine. The reports suggest that they will be rebranded as Ed outlets by the end of the year.
Carrefour is reported as saying that the deal will allow it to push the Ed fascia into parts of France where it has not been present until now.
Carrefour is growing its discount store business at a rapid pace, with 102 new discount stores opening during the first half of the year alone. A further 32 stores in Spain will be consolidated in the second half, the company said.
The discount food store phenomenon is being driven by the poor economic conditions in many of the markets where Carrefour does business. In France alone, first half sales from the hard discount operations reached €991 million, up 7.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis. New stores accounted for a further 4.6 per cent growth, the company said.
In Spain, discount stores sales were €1.3 billion during the half, up 2.5 per cent on a like-for-like basis and with an additional 3.3 per cent growth from new stores.
Just last week, Carrefour's rival Casino reported first half sales of €1.7 billion from its discount unit, Franprix/Leader Price, a 9.2 per cent increase on the previous year.