Kaufland is changing its procurement partner: the German distributor is switching to Agecore, seeking to join forces with other European retailers internationally. The retailer does leave competitor EMD to do so.
“The ideal match”
The battle of competition in the European food retail continues behind the scenes: at the level of purchasing alliances, which retailers enter into to buy more cheaply together. For example, European Marketing Distribution (EMD) is now losing Kaufland, which is trading the group to Agecore. Founded in 2015 on the initiative of Edeka, Agecore currently includes Colruyt (Belgium), Coop (Switzerland), Conad (Italy) and Eroski (Spain).
As a subsidiary of Lidl group Schwarz, Kaufland says the sourcing structures of the other Agecore members are an ideal fit for them. “We cooperate with companies that also have short decision-making channels,” says Joerg Ossenberg-Engels, Divisional Director Purchasing International, to Lebensmittel Zeitung. Besides long-term supplier partnerships, the alliance’s activities also focus on topics such as sustainability, digitalisation, AI and the value of brands.
Supermarket companies can hardly do without European partners nowadays. Procurement coalitions have become so powerful that they attracted the attention of the European Commission last year. However, there appeared to be no evidence of anti-competitive effects.
