PARIS/LONDON: French supermarket retailer Carrefour and British peer Tesco announced on Monday plans to form a global long-term purchasing alliance, as they seek to cut costs. The deal is the latest partnership within the European retail industry, which has seen US Internet giant Amazon make in-roads into the sector in recent months. The alliance, whose financial terms were not disclosed, will cover the strategic relations with global suppliers in areas such as marketing services or data collection as well as the joint purchasing of own-brand products and goods not for re-sale, said Carrefour in a statement.
The alliance, which will be formally agreed in the next two months, will exclude fresh food products, while each company will continue to work with supplier partners at a local and national level. “This strategic alliance between Carrefour and Tesco is a major agreement as it combines the purchasing expertise of two world leaders, complementary in their geographies, with common strategies,” said Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard. Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket with sales of $67.2 billion, has been rebuilt by Chief Executive Dave Lewis after a 2014 accounting scandal compounded a sharp downturn in trading. — AFP
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