Casino sells 33 supermarkets to Lidl

French supermarket group Casino continues to sell its stores: the company has sold 33 supermarkets to Lidl and one Geant hypermarket to rival E.Leclerc.

34 supermarkets sold

Casino and its franchisees have agreed on the sale of 34 loss-making supermarkets and hypermarkets. The group has sold 33 outlets to discount chain Lidl and one hypermarket of its subsidiary Geant to a franchisee of competing group E.Leclerc. The acquirers commit to hiring all of the staff, as is required by law.

Of the stores acquired by Lidl, 17 are Casino’s own stores. That number includes eight outlets belonging to discount subsidiary Leader Price, eight Casino supermarkets and one Casino hypermarket. Casino’s franchisees are selling another 16 stores (nine Leader Price stores and seven Casino supermarkets).

20 million euro loss

The franchise stores represented a turnover of 60 million euros in 2018, but also a loss of 9 million. The integrated stores made a loss of 12 million euros and a turnover of 88 million in 2018. The owner of the shopping centre in Roubaix where the Geant hypermarket will be taken over by E.Leclerc, has also acquired the real estate: that brings the total price of the takeover to 25 million euros.

Casino has been reducing its number of stores for over a year, hoping to get rid of its debts: the distribution group is hoping to sell 1.5 billion euros worth of real estate or other non-strategic activities, so it will most likely continue to sell outlets this year.