Carrefour wants to bring ED brand back to life

ED to Dia and back to ED

According to our colleagues at Linéaires, Carrefour has reregistered the ED trademark on 12 February. The name, short for European Discount, is a well-known name in France: its stores were around from 1975 to 2012, when it was transformed into Dia, a discount chain that belonged to Groupe Carrefour until 2011 and returned to the flock in June 2014.

Gérard Lavinay, Dia France’s CEO since December 2014, now thinks that only 60 to 70 % could return as a Carrefour store. At the pace of one store per region and per month, the remaining 200 – 300 Dia stores would be turned into ED stores, starting from April.

Linéaires believes the new ‘old’ formula would be a mixture of a discounter and a cash and carry, targeting regular customers and professionals. That particular mixture is similar to what Carrefour Spain’s Supeco launch in 2012, a formula to fight the crisis. Supeco currently has 12 Spanish stores and has also launched in Brazil and Romania.

Turnover growth above 10 %

Labour unions have said that Erteco, which manages Dia in France, had a 2014 loss of more than 100 million euro. These new plans should help turn things around: the new ED stores should help reach a turnover growth of more than 10 % in its first year.

The other store formulas should reach growth of more than 10 % for the larger Dia stores (which would become Market stores), 19 % for the smaller Dia stores (which would become City stores) and even 24 % for the smallest Dia stores (which would become Contact stores).