Wednesday March 17th 2021
Cartel office takes a stand
Edeka is taking over fewer Real branches
With the takeover of dozens of Real branches, the retail giant Edeka can further expand its leading market position. However, the grocer has to make significant cuts in his plans: Edeka is now not allowed to buy around a third of the desired Real locations.
The Edeka Group is only allowed to take over 45 locations from the Real supermarket chain instead of 72 as intended. For competitive reasons, the Bundeskartellamt only partially approved the Edeka project. Accordingly, Edeka is not allowed to take over 21 locations, with six others partial areas must be given to competitors for at least ten years or branches must be closed in return.
The Bonn competition authority had already expressed concerns in advance and spoke of an "impending significant impediment to effective competition" as a result of the takeover. Now, the head of the authorities, Andreas Mundt, said that at a number of locations, the office was concerned that "with the takeover, Edeka would become too strong in the respective regional markets". Edeka would therefore have to forego around 30 percent of the planned takeovers.
Consumers should "also in the future be able to choose between different grocers", Mundt continued. This option creates the necessary competitive pressure on the providers and thus ensures better prices, selection and quality.
Kaufland takes over 92 stores
The Düsseldorf Metro group had sold the Real supermarket chain with around 270 stores, around 34,000 employees and annual sales of around seven billion euros to the Russian investor SCP. Metro concentrates on the wholesale business, Real no longer suited this concept. SCP wants to break the chain.
The Edeka group is in turn the leading provider in the German food retail sector, the group also includes the discounter Netto. In December, the Cartel Office had already given Edeka competitor Kaufland the green light to take over up to 92 Real stores. In the course of this decision, SCP had promised to sell locations with a total procurement volume of at least 200 million euros to medium-sized food retailers. For one such retailer, the Globus Group, the authority had approved the takeover of up to 24 Real locations.
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