Intermarché and Casino Group today announced the start of their partnership

Intermarché and Casino Group today announced the start of their partnership covering leading-brand product purchasing in France, international service solutions for major food companies and their innovative data retail services offering in targeted advertising and personalised promotions.

The partners' joint central purchasing unit for food products, named 'Auxo Achats Alimentaires' and managed by Intermarché, began its operations on 1 September. Its mission is to negotiate purchasing terms with the largest industrial groups, on behalf of the two partners in France, for mass consumer goods from leading brands - excluding private-label products, traditional agricultural goods and seafood, and well-known national brand products from small or mid-sized companies.

The partners' joint central purchasing unit for non-food products, named 'Auxo Achats Non- Alimentaires' and managed by Casino Group, began its operations on 1 September. Its mission will be to negotiate purchasing terms, on behalf of the two partners in France, for technical products, stationery and textiles.

Outside France, Intermarché and Casino Group have created Global Retail Services, a joint organisation tasked with marketing international services to large industrial groups operating in their territories in Europe (France, Belgium, Portugal and Poland) and Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina). Global Retail Services is based in Brussels.

Auxo Achats Alimentaires, Auxo Achats Non-Alimentaires and Global Retail Services will work with a limited number of suppliers who are pivotal due to their size and geographical footprint and who, individually, have a dominant position in many product categories. These partnerships have been set up for the long term (five-years) in order to offer visibility and long-term stability to the large industrial groups they will be addressing and allow time for implementing differentiating supply models (on food safety, innovations, origin, multi-year contracts, etc.).

Both Intermarché and Casino Group will remain completely independent, notably for all other sourcing and - more generally - in terms of marketing, pricing and promotions, as well as in the expansion of their store networks.

Casino Group and Intermarché have also created Infinity Advertising, a joint venture designed to market a retail media offering to food brands and their agents in France, outside of any purchasing negotiations, and in compliance with personal data protection rules and competition law. It will be able to capitalise on one of the largest transactional databases in France on digital media, leveraging technologies developed by RelevanC.