Picnic‘s co-founder Michiel Muller has confirmed earlier rumours that his Dutch online supermarket was trialing in Germany. He added that the trials were done under the brand name Sprinter.
Three to five cities in 2018
“We are trialing our lowest prices and free delivery in the Düsseldorf region and we are getting a lot of positive feedback from the German consumer”, Muller wrote on LinkedIn. “Germany is a wonderful market for Picnic, seeing how it is six times larger than the Netherlands and online supermarkets have not penetrated the market that much.”
His company plans to launch in Germany, in three to five cities across the North Rhine-Westphalia area. These cities will be able to enjoy Picnic deliveries before the end of the year. According to Picnic Germany CEO, Frederic Knaudt, the company will add twenty to thirty cities in 2019. The company will also build a main office in Düsseldorf and a separate distribution center in German Viersen.
Picnic did not perform trials under its own name, but under the Sprinter Supermarket brand. It has been doing these trials since October for a limited amount of families, which all had to sign non-disclosure agreements. The Sprinter name will disappear in favour of the Picnic name itself.
Muller refused to confirm the news last week, but he did indicate that he was looking at other European countries. In the meantime, the brand is still expanding in the Netherlands, where new cities are added to Picnic’s delivery range every month.
