Casino Group and Intermarché announce the start of their partnership

Press release

Paris, 1 September 2021

Intermarché and Casino Group today announced the start of their partnership covering leading-brand product purchasing in France, international service solutions for major food companies and their innovative data retail services offering in targeted advertising and personalised promotions

On 15 April, Intermarché and Casino Group announced that they had signed a five-year strategic partnership agreement to capture the value of their complementary strengths.

The partners’ joint central purchasing unit for food products, named “Auxo Achats Alimentaires” and managed by Intermarché, began its operations on 1 September. Based in Massy (southern Paris suburb), its mission is to negotiate purchasing terms with the largest industrial groups, on behalf of the two partners in France, for mass consumer goods from leading brands – excluding private-label products, traditional agricultural goods and seafood, and well-known national brand products from small or mid‑sized companies.

Auxo Achats Alimentaires is chaired by Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux, an Intermarché member. Its Chief Executive is Tristan Dupont, from Intermarché. The unit is operationally autonomous and has its own teams, of whom two-thirds are from Intermarché and one-third from Casino Group.

The partners’ joint central purchasing unit for non-food products, named “Auxo Achats Non-Alimentaires” and managed by Casino Group, began its operations on 1 September. Also based in Massy, its mission will be to negotiate purchasing terms, on behalf of the two partners in France, for technical products, stationery and textiles.

Auxo Achats Non-Alimentaires is chaired by Fabrice Soler from Casino Group. Its Chief Executive is Stéphane Cathelain, also from Casino Group. This unit is also operationally autonomous and has its own teams, of whom two-thirds are from Casino Group and one-third from Intermarché.

In Greek mythology, Auxo is the goddess of growth, expansion and progress.

Outside France, Intermarché and Casino Group have created Global Retail Services, a joint organisation tasked with marketing international services to large industrial groups operating in their territories in Europe (France, Belgium, Portugal and Poland) and Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina). Global Retail Services is based in Brussels.

These international services are intended to help suppliers to develop in a more structured and coherent manner in their markets, and to foster the search for synergies with suppliers. Global Retail Services will be chaired alternately by Intermarché and Casino Group, with Stéphane de Fontenay, an Intermarché member, serving first as Chairman. Intermarché’s Michael Blouet, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of Global Retail Services - and Laetitia Moulin, from Casino Group, has been appointed General Secretary.

Intermarché and Casino Group have completed all the standard notification and information procedures with the competent competition authorities for these various partnerships, which will therefore be effective in time for the 2022 purchasing round.

Auxo Achats Alimentaires, Auxo Achats Non-Alimentaires and Global Retail Services will work with a limited number of suppliers who are pivotal due to their size and geographical footprint and who, individually, have a dominant position in many product categories. These partnerships have been set up for the long term (five-years) in order to offer visibility and long-term stability to the large industrial groups they will be addressing and allow time for implementing differentiating supply models (on food safety, innovations, origin, multi-year contracts, etc.).

Both Intermarché and Casino Group will remain completely independent, notably for all other sourcing and – more generally – in terms of marketing, pricing and promotions, as well as in the expansion of their store networks.

Casino Group and Intermarché have also created Infinity Advertising, a joint venture designed to market a retail media offering to food brands and their agents in France, outside of any purchasing negotiations, and in compliance with personal data protection rules and competition law. The venture is chaired by Jérôme Sabatié, an Intermarché member, and is managed by Alban Schleuniger, from RelevanC, a Casino Group subsidiary which develops technological solutions for retail media and CRM. It will be able to capitalise on one of the largest transactional databases in France on digital media, leveraging technologies developed by RelevanC.

INTERMARCHÉ

PRESS CONTACTS

Agence SOURCE RP

Charlotte Rabilloud - +33 (0)6 62 03 28 34/+33 (0)1 85 78 66 32 -

Michelle Kamar - +33 (0)6 09 24 42 42/+33 (0)1 85 78 66 31 -

CASINO Group

ANALYST AND INVESTOR CONTACTS

Lionel Benchimol – +33 (0)1 53 65 64 17

 

or

+33 (0)1 53 65 24 17

PRESS CONTACTS

Stéphanie Abadie- +33 (0)6 26 27 37 05

or

+33 (0)1 53 65 24 78 -

Agence IMAGE 7

Karine Allouis – +33 (0)1 53 70 74 84 –  

Franck Pasquier – +33 (0)1 53 70 74 91 -

Attachment