Dutch retail group Ahold Delhaize is joining Eurelec, the purchasing alliance founded by Rewe and E.Leclerc. From 2025, the three European retail giants will start buying together to tackle European price differences.
“Keeping food affordable”
The landscape of retail alliances is in shifting rapidly: days after the announcement that Jumbo is joining purchasing alliances Epic and Everest, both founded by German market leader Edeka, comes the news that Ahold Delhaize will become the third member of Eurelec. That alliance was founded in 2016 by French market leader E.Leclerc and German number two Rewe. Together, the three retailers represent net sales of 155 billion euros. Following approval by competition authorities, preparations will begin in 2024 and joint sourcing in 2025, a press release says.
Eurelec’s agenda is clear: like Everest, this alliance wants to address the price differences that exist for identical products in different European member states. “We experienced price differences between European countries that cannot be objectively explained other than that some manufacturers sell the exact same product at different prices in EU countries”, says Wouter Kolk, CEO of Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia. “We owe it to our consumers to keep food affordable in these challenging times and grant them access to a true European single market.”
Worth noting: Ahold Delhaize was already affiliated with E.Leclerc and Rewe in the purchasing hub Coopernic, which also includes Coop Italia. In addition, the merged group is a member of buying alliance AMS, which includes Migros, ICA, Morrisons, Musgrave and Kesko. Each of these alliances has a different objective: AMS buys private labels, Coopernic negotiates ‘on top’ terms with branded manufacturers.
