In five years’ time, Picnic wants to be a major international player. A new purchasing alliance with German market leader Edeka and the launch of its own private label should make that possible: France and the United Kingdom are already in sight.
Why not Spain or Poland?
Picnic will launch its own private label in a few weeks’ time. According to co-founder Joris Beckers, this will not only demonstrate the maturity of the Dutch online supermarket, it will also help the pure player with its international expansion ambitions. In addition to Dutch and German labels, these private label products will also receive French and English inscriptions.
Indeed, the online grocery service is also set to go to France and the United Kingdom, after it was successfully launched in 100 cities in the Netherlands and 30 locations in Germany. “I think Picnic will be a major international player in five years’ time”, said Beckers to the Financieele Dagblad. “We wouldn’t know why it would work differently in England, France, Spain or Poland.”
No takeover
To make this possible, Picnic is entering into a new purchasing alliance with German supermarket group Edeka, which already owns 35% of Picnic Germany. For this purpose, the web supermarket leaves its original purchasing partner Superunie and sets up a new organisation called Everest. Edeka itself says it is also happy with the new partner, because a ‘web-only’ player is an interesting asset when negotiating with major brand manufacturers. However, there would be no question of a takeover.
Picnic expects a turnover of 500 million euros this year, but the company is still making a loss.
