Auchan

French retail group Auchan withdraws from China: the company sells its Chinese division Sun Art to Alibaba for 3 billion euros. Both groups have been working closely together there for some time.

This week, the European Commission opened a formal investigation into possible secret agreements between the French food retailers Casino and Intermarché. They are alleged to have coordinated their selling prices, which is contrary to EU competition rules.

Lidl and Leclerc keep growing their market share in the hyper-competitive French food market, which has barely seen any growth as a whole. Most of their success comes at the cost of Carrefour, Casino and Auchan, which are all in a state of decline.

This week, the offices of supermarket chains Casino and Intermarché (in France) and Carrefour and Louis Delhaize (in Belgium) were visited by inspectors from different competition authorities. They are investigating whether the retailers violated antitrust regulations with their purchase alliances.

Italian supermarket chain Conad strengthens its position in Northern Italy through the acquisition of 1600 stores, including 46 hypermarkets, from Auchan. The French chain needs this transaction, pending the approval of the Italian competition authorities, to go through after a billion euro loss last year.

After reporting a net loss of 1.145 billion euros in 2018, French retail group Auchan has now announced a cost cutting plan for its hypermarkets, including major restructurings.

In March, French chain Auchan will open its first 'Minute' store in Europe, in the French municipality of Villeneuve d'Ascq (close to the Belgian border). These compact "container stores" have no registers or staff: shopping is entirely done through smartphone.