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March 19, 2021 – 10:20 am Clock
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With 6 Real locations, Edeka has to make compromises
The Federal Cartel Office has given Germany’s largest grocery retailer Edeka the green light to take over up to 51 Real branches. However, due to competition law concerns, the retail giant has to rent partial areas to competitors for at least ten years or close its own locations beforehand, as the authority announced.
Edeka wanted to take over 72 branches from Real
Originally, Edeka even wanted to take over up to 72 branches from Real owner SCP. At 21 locations, however, the trading giant’s plans failed due to competition law concerns from the cartel office. “We must ensure that consumers will be able to choose between different grocery retailers in the future too. This option creates competitive pressure on suppliers and thus ensures better prices, choice and quality,” said Andreas Mundt, President of the Cartel Office, explaining the attitude of the competition watchdog. “At a number of locations, we were concerned that the takeover would make Edeka too strong in the respective regional markets.”
The Bundeskartellamt was also concerned about the retail giant’s growing purchasing power as a result of the takeovers. The conditional approval was only possible because SCP had undertaken to sell Real locations with a sales volume of around 430 million euros to medium-sized grocery retailers, stressed Mundt. This meant that alternative sales channels were retained for the manufacturers.
Edeka is allowed to take over these Real branches
- Aschaffenburg
- Augsburg-East
- Bamberg
- Bannewitz (near Dresden)
- Bayreuth
- Bochum-Langendreer
- Bremen (Duckwitzstrasse)
- Bremen-habenhausen
- Bremen-Vahr
- Darmstadt
- Dettingen / Erms
- Duisburg
- Dülmen
- Düren
- Düsseldorf
- Filderstadt
- Flensburg
- Freiburg
- Goslar
- Gross-Gerau
- Henstedt-Ulzburg
- Horb
- Kaiserslautern
- Karlsruhe-Bulach
- Kirchheim am Neckar
- Kronach
- Leipzig
- Leverkusen
- Ludwigshafen
- Lübeck
- Mutterstadt
- Neumarkt
- Neuruppin
- Potsdam-Drewitz
- Rees
- Saarbrücken-Dudweiler
- Salzgitter
- Schleswig
- Schorfheide
- Schwedt
- Teltow
- Weingarten
- Wiesbaden (Äppelallee)
- Wiesbaden (Mainzer Strasse)
- Wuelfrath
Edeka may only take over these locations if partial areas are given to other competitors for at least ten years or if Edeka closes its own locations beforehand:
- Böblingen-Hulb
- Memmingen
- Nürtingen
- Ratingen
- Rhede-Vardingholt
- Würzburg
Globus and Kaufland are also taking over Real branches
The locations of the Real department store chain are in great demand.
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The Russian financial investor SCP had acquired the ailing hypermarket chain Real with its around 270 stores from Metro last year in order to break up and resell it. SCP welcomed the decision of the Federal Cartel Office. They represent a “further milestone in the sales process”. In December, the large-scale discounter Kaufland received the green light from the competition authorities to take over up to 92 Real stores. Originally, Kaufland even wanted to take over 101 branches. But here, too, concerns of the Cartel Office set limits to the takeover plans. The Globus supermarket chain received approval for the acquisition of up to 24 Real stores. Source: DPA / RTL.de
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