Aura Detail
62.5 billion euros : revenue in France (40 billion for Intermarché, 13.5 billion for Auchan and 9 billion to casino)
- 1st French food shopping center ahead of E. Leclerc with 29% market share for the three brands
- 15,000 stores in around ten countries, including around 13,000 in France
- Membership of the European centers Everest and Epic for the purchase of major brands
Source: LSA
At the beginning of the 2024-2025 commercial negotiations, Intermarché, Auchan and Casino have revealed the name (Aura Retail), the organization (five structures) and the organizational chart of their purchasing alliance. This marriage will allow them to secure a 29% market share with 15,000 stores in around fifteen countries, the first French powerhouse ahead of E. Leclerc. Formalized on April 24, it took five months to appoint the key leaders.
On the food side, Aura will consist of three shopping centers managed by Intermarché. Two will be located in Massy (Essonne). One will deal with FMCG with 200 national brand suppliers and will be led by Emmanuel Lavit (former president of Auxo Private Label, purchasing structure at Intermarché and Casino) together with Frédéric Lecoq (DG).
The other will be assigned to the MDD, still headed by Emmanuel Lavit, assisted by Jérôme Dumont, operational director, and Corinne Aubry-Lecomte, secretary general. Finally, a service center based in Brussels will be responsible for obtaining the best prices for all the countries where the three brands are present (Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Hungary, France). It will be led by Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux, former president of Auxo, and Olivier Mercier, former CEO of Auxo.
Associated with Everest and Epic
On the non-food side, two structures will be managed by Auchan, one to handle 100 major producers and headed by Stéphane Boënnec (President) and Isabelle Saluden (DG). It will have its private label counterpart with the Intragroup Purchasing Organization, an already existing Auchan subsidiary. But what about the reorganization of teams? Will the French and international support functions merge? Finally, without a service center, there is no salvation. This, based in Luxembourg, will be managed by Arnaud Bricmont (President) and Dimitri Proskurovsky (GD); a duo that already managed Patinvest, Auchan’s service center.
This mega purchasing alliance is duplicated abroad. Aura Retail thus announced that it was joining Everest and Epic, which Coopérative U had just left. The first, based in the Netherlands, includes Edeka, Picnic and Jumbo; the second, located in Switzerland, brings together the previous three, to which are added ICA, Migros, Esselunga… “We want to have the same weight as Eurelec, E. Leclerc’s shopping centre »says someone close to the matter. Objective: negotiate with the 40 major multinational food companies and only them. Not SMEs.
Manufacturers were quick to respond. “If we do not rectify the situation quickly, the problem of international shopping centers, which organize the circumvention of French law, will no longer concern only large companies, but will soon extend to medium-sized companies and SMEs. We will not accept this operation”said Jean-Francois Loiseauchairman of the National Association of the Food Industry.
To which Layla Rahhou, General Delegate of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution, replies: ” By lowering the price of products with a low agricultural component thanks to European centers, it is the consumer who regains purchasing power and can make different choices in favor of French agricultural products. “The subject should very quickly come to the desk of the new government as part of a possible revision of the Egalim law.
This article is from our October 3, 2024 issue
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