Carrefour Italia has signed an agreement with Conad, to acquire 28 Auchan stores in the Lombardy region in Italy for an undisclosed amount, reports suggest.
Most of the stores are of proximity format, with the sales area ranging between 150 and 600 square meters.
'Strong Development Potential'
According to Carrefour Italia, the agreement will enable the retailer to strengthen its presence in the Lombardy region, "with strong development potential that favour formats that are increasingly in line with the new purchasing habits of Italian consumers".
The transaction is scheduled to close in the beginning of next year, and includes provisions to safeguard the jobs of existing employees.
This deal is in line with Carrefour Italia’s Transformation Plan 2019-2022, announced in February of this year, which focuses on the development of proximity stores, such as Carrefour Express, in strategic geographical areas.
It comes just weeks after the retailer signed two master franchising agreements with Apulia Distribuzione and Etruria Retail, adding more than 500 stores to its franchising network in Central and Southern Italy.
In July of this year, the Italian supermarket chain Conad completed the acquisition of almost all retail activities of Auchan Retail in Italy, following a deal that initially involved almost 300 outlets and about 18,000 workers.
Challenges
The first changes of the store banner began in October, however, Conad faced several obstacles, including the size of shops and territorial overlap.
Therefore, Conad decided to sell some of the stores it purchased from Auchan to third parties, including 28 stores to Carrefour Italia.
Elsewhere, Conad is restructuring its operation to set up Conad Centro Sud, a result of the merger of regional cooperatives Pac 2000 A and Conad Sicilia.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
