Food
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.
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Cosmetics
L'Oréal has exceeded expectations with a strong third quarter: the French cosmetics brand saw its sales grow by 11 %, the strongest growth in more than a decade.
Fashion
In the third quarter, the French Kering group saw its revenue rise sharply again. All major brands (Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent) contributed to the group’s growth.
The ailing French distributor Casino wants to reduce its debts and seems to have found an interested party to offload its Géant hypermarkets to. Discounter E.Leclerc has started acquisition talks for three-quarters of the hypermarkets.
General
Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt has taken a minority interest in Scallog, a French start-up that develops logistics robots. The chain hopes the technology will be used to develop applications that it can use in the future.
Belgian chain Medi-Market has opened its first French store in Roncq, near the border with Belgium. The drugstore chain is also soon to open more stores in Italy, as it aims to profit from advantages of operating on a European scale.
Belgian praline producer Leonidas intends to open 150 new stores in France over the next five years, starting with about twenty in the very near future.
French Casino, the parent company of (among others) Géant and Monoprix, saw its turnover increase by 1.8 % in the past quarter. However, the growth is predominantly international: in France, there was a decline in turnover.
Dutch glasses discounter Eyelove is going to expand into France. The company wants to capitalise on a new healthcare law that is entering into force next year, which obliges opticians to also offer cheaper pairs of glasses.
Carrefour has opened a 'clean' cosmetics store in Paris, called Sources. Transparency about the composition of the products is key to the concept: more than 75 controversial ingredients have been excluded from the range.
French chain Orchestra-Prémaman, which specialises in clothing for baby and children, will be protected against creditors over the next six months - a period that can be extended to eighteen months if needed.
According to the newspaper ‘Les Echos’, Casino is conducting exclusive negotiations with Aldi regarding the sale of Leader Price. The possible transaction fits the rescue plan announced on 20 August.
Property
The launch of Westfield on the European continent was celebrated in Paris. The shopping centre operator will have ten Unibail-Rodamco shopping centres under their responsibility, ranging from France to Sweden.
In Valenciennes (in France, near the border with Belgium), Carrefour has opened its first French Supeco store. That is the first of five pilot stores, where the retailer will test a combination of supermarket, discount and cash&carry.
Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has acquired a 4.63 % stake in French retailer Casino, along with his Slovak partner Patrik Tkac. The move comes soon after a failed attempt to get a majority share in the German Metro group.
French retailer Auchan has suffered a loss of almost 1.5 billion euros during the first half of 2019, as exiting the Italian market proved very costly. However, the chain sees signs that better times are on the way.
