Auchan France has announced that it is to sell its subsidiary Arcimbo following disappointing sales figures, and that it will expand the distribution of its private-label organic products by opening more Coeur de Nature supermarkets, LSA.fr reports.
The director general of Auchan France, Vincent Mignot, has said that Arcimbo, which specialises in the small-scale selling of fresh produce, will be supplanted by “a more viable economic model”. Arcimbo stores are regarded as the first cousins of Auchan Drive outlets in terms of their size and where they are located.
The new economic model involves opening more Coeur de Nature supermarkets in the Paris region, which will principally sell Auchan private-label foods. Mignot stated that the expansion of the brand will begin in this zone for supply-chain reasons, as well as demographic reasons.
At present, only one Coeur de Nature supermarket exists, in Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne), and it occupies 1,000 square metres of floor space. It has performed well since May 2012, when it began trading.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
