Portuguese grocery retailers Intermarché and Grupo Dia Portugal are to end their joint negotiating and purchasing platform Cindia.
The news was announced by Os Mosqueteiros, the Portuguese unit of French retailer Les Mousquetaires, stating that the platform will be closed in the coming months.
Cindia was set up by the two partners in May 2015 to negotiate with Portugal’s biggest brands, with the aim of optimising the purchasing conditions for both banners, while improving the services offered to suppliers.
Traditional fresh produce from the agricultural or fishing sectors were excluded, as were negotiations with SMEs.
One of the goals of the cooperation agreement was to enable Intermarché and Grupo Dia Portugal to compete more efficiently with the two distribution leaders in Portugal, Sonae and Jerónimo Martins, providing benefits for consumers, while retaining competition between both groups - which continued to manage their own sales strategies separately.
No Impact on Alcanena Logistics Centre
Intermarché claims that the end of the partnership will not have an impact on the Alcanena logistics centre (34,800 square metres). The retailer has two more distribution centres, in Paços de Ferreira (33,000 sqm) and Cantanhede (25,750 square metres).
The new development follows the international decision that the Intermarché group has decided to cease 'by mutual agreement' the purchasing alliance with French peer Casino, which has decided to align its product acquisition process with Auchan.
Intermarché explained that the decision was taken 'in order to redefine its strategic goals in terms of purchases', but provided no information on further plans.
Intermarché has 245 stores in Portugal, while Dia group owns 650 stores of the Minipreço banner in Portugal.
© 2018 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
