Italy: Leclerc and Conad to terminate alliance - reports

LSA is reporting that supermarket groups E. Leclerc and Conad are to terminate an agreement between the companies in Italy which has existed for more than 10 years.

According to a source close to LSA, the move would mean that all existing partnerships between the two retail groups would cease by the end of the year. As a result, Conad would lose the right to use the Leclerc name on its hypermarkets in Italy.

The reported move comes amid a shakeup to buying agreements among the major supermarket chains in Europe. In autumn 2013, Rewe, Colruyt and Coop Suisse left Coopernic, a pan-European buying venture created in 2006, centred around E. Leclerc, to form their own grouping known as Core. In the past few days, Conad has announced a new Italy-only alliance with the chain Finiper, which operates hypermarkets under the name Iper.

Meanwhile the original Coopernic grouping is also undergoing changes, with the Belgium-based retail chain Delhaize announcing in a statement that it will be joining a new-look  Coopernic alliance in 2015 alongside another Italian supermarket group, Coop Italia.

Source: LSA / Delhaize