The Competition Authority authorized this Thursday in retrospect the purchase of 200 stores under the Casino brand by its competitor Mousquetaires/Intermarché. But on one condition: Intermarché must sell 11 stores to other distributors to avoid too little competition at the local level.
The stores which will have to be sold are located in Arc-lès-Gray (70), Bagnères-de-Luchon (17), Blanzac-lès-Matha (17), Boé (82), Charlieu (42), Lambesc (13) , Lorgues (83), Revel (31), Solliès-Pont (83), Susville (38) and Valence-d'Agen (82), specifies the Authority in its press release. Intermarché had announced the acquisition of Casino stores at the start of 2024.
Other stores sold to Auchan and Carrefour
The major financial difficulties of the distributor Casino had forced it to sell almost all of its large format stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets, to its competitors Intermarché, but also Auchan and Carrefour. The conclusions of the examination of the buyouts carried out by the latter two, who respectively bought around a hundred and around thirty Casino stores, will be the subject of differentiated communication, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The Competition Authority clarified this Thursday that the examination of the operation “concerns stores other than the 61 points of sale” Casino already purchased in 2023 by Intermarché. The operation was authorized in January 2024, subject to the sale of three stores in Lons-le-Saunier (39), Plouaret (22) and Vals-près-le-Puy (43). They were “sold to the Carrefour group”, indicates the independent authority.
3,000 jobs threatened
Casino still had 200,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2022, including 50,000 in France. But he had grown in debt and, after having multiplied the sales, he had to restructure his debt in significant proportions. The first shareholder and previous manager Jean-Charles Naouri then had to hand over, and let the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his allies take control of the group.
The distributor today employs less than 30,000 people even before a social plan currently being discussed and which threatens around 3,000 jobs according to the unions. It is refocused around smaller store brands, Monoprix, Franprix, Vival or Spar. The new management intends to make it a “champion of proximity” by developing franchise activity, a more profitable mode of store operation for distributors who then do not have to assume certain operating costs.
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