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Epic, the European retail alliance led by Edeka, has ended the membership of Swedish supermarket chain ICA after disagreements over compliance with trade boycotts.
Pressure on brand manufacturers
After three years as a member, ICA is leaving the European retail alliance Epic, which was founded in 2021 by German market leader Edeka. The Swedish chain was reportedly kicked out for failing to respect agreements on boycott actions by the buying group against brand manufacturers, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports.
Under CEO Gianluigi Ferrari, Epic regularly pressures brand manufacturers with delistings to force additional conditions or discounts. In doing so, the alliance expects cooperation from all members, but ICA allegedly did not sufficiently comply with the agreed sanctions, while it did benefit from the enforced discounts. This would not have been to the liking of other members, who lost sales because of the boycotts.
One of the largest alliances
With ICA’s departure, the buying alliance loses net sales of thirteen billion euros. Earlier, Epic also cancelled its cooperation with Russia’s Magnit due to the war in Ukraine. With seven members in nine countries and a combined turnover of 160 billion euros, it does remain one of the largest buying alliances in Europe.
Recently, Esselunga (Italy), Système U (France) and and Jumbo (the Netherlands) joined Epic. Its other members are Jerónimo Martins (Portugal), Migros Group (Switzerland) and online retailer Picnic (the Netherlands).
