The Louis Delhaize group is leaving its last foreign market, selling its 27 locations in Luxembourg to French retailer E.Leclerc.
Retreat complete
Just a week after ceding its French stores to Carrefour, the Belgian retailer is now also selling its Luxembourg stores of the chains Match, Smatch and Cora. The buyer is E.Leclerc, best known to us for its polka dot jersey in the Tour de France.
The 1,200 Luxembourg employees need not fear for their jobs, the press release says: E.Leclerc promises to keep them employed. The chain that originates in Brittany hopes to complete the transfer before the end of the year.
Eventful year
It has been an eventful year for the Belgian retailer, which leaves its three last foreign markets in a space of three months: the sale of the Romanian branch in April (also to Carrefour) precedes today’s and last week’s deals. Moreover, there was the planned and started assimilation of the Belgian Match stores into the Louis Delhaize chain, which was abolished with the arrival of a new managing director.
If analysts were already asking questions about the operational security of the remnants in Belgium after the sale of the French branch, those questions will only come back stronger with the new deal…
