The dismemberment of the distributor Louis Delhaize continues. At the start of the week, he announced the sale of Delfood to Delhaize. Delfood supplies 325 independent local sales points, including 150 under the Louis Delhaize brand, but also operates 26 branch stores under the Louis Delhaize brand. Everything was therefore sold to Delhaize, including logistics and head office, which allowed the Belgian distributor founded by Jules and Auguste in 1867 to consolidate its positions in proximity, a niche occupied by Carrefour and Colruyt.
This transfer follows a long list. The start of operations begins in April 2023 with the sale of ten Cora stores in Romania which employ 2,400 employees at Carrefour. Three months later, Carrefour France took over Cora and Match, followed by E.Leclerc which took over the two brands in Luxembourg. In September of the same year, the Belgian Colruyt bought 57 Match and Smatch supermarkets, then Delitraiteur, the chain of meal stores. Finally, last December, Louis Delhaize sold the Houra site to Sophie Bouriez, who is none other than the daughter of Philippe Bouriez, president of Louis Delhaize for more than thirty years and family shareholder.
A “social catastrophe” in sight?
Today, the concern is about what remains of the Louis Delhaize group. During a demonstration organized on January 15 in Brussels, the unions pointed out the 7 Belgian Cora hypermarkets and the 2,000 employees who work there. Added to this is the real estate subsidiary Galimmo. The Belgian specialized site Gondola underlines that only two of the 7 hypermarkets would be profitable. The Belgian union SETca fears a “ catastrophe social ». « We know that Louis Delhaize is trying to part with this latest “lot” in whole or in part. Will we see a new sale by apartment, a global takeover of galleries and hypermarkets or even a social catastrophe for hypermarkets? No information is filtered. Management remains mum, only stating that we must continue to “have confidence ».
