Colruyt, CONAD, COOP Suisse and REWE enter new alliance

Successor to purchase alliance Coopernic

Purchase alliance Coopernic ceased to exist in September 2013 because of “irreconcilable differences in the approach” with E.Leclerc. The French company was therefore not included in the new alliance,  which – like its predecessor – will have its headquarters in Brussels. Alain Caparros, the CEO for REWE Group, was appointed as chairman, while Gianluigi Ferrari will become general manager.

“With CORE, the partners have formed an alliance that gives an answer to the growing challenges of competition in Europe and the increasing internationalisation of food retailing”, Caparros has said. “Through joint purchasing, we want to offer all of our customers even better prices. The close-knit and powerful CORE management also wishes to build strong international partnerships with the food industry, while it wants to offer its suppliers attractive growth prospects.”

The four mutually independent distributors, Colruyt Group, CONAD, COOP Suisse and REWE Group, had a joint 2013 turnover of 88 billion euro, which meant a 6.7 % European market share. The alliance has some 20,000 stores in 18 European countries.