The Auchan Retail, Casino Group, METRO, DIA new alliance called Horizon International Services now officially active

The Auchan Retail, Casino Group, METRO, DIA new alliance called Horizon International Services now officially active

(PRESS RELEASE) PARIS, 6-Mar-2019 — /EuropaWire/ — The new alliance, Horizon International Services, formed by the major retailers Auchan Retail, Casino Group, METRO and DIA, originally announced in June 2018, has already received the applicable approvals from the competition authorities. The alliance has just begun its operations on 15 February 2019.

The new alliance Horizon International Services will be active in 47 countries across Europe, Asia and South America in which the four companies, retailers and wholesalers, operate.

The partners in the Horizon International Services alliance will have interlocking activities such as multi-format retailing, wholesale, deliveries, etc.

Horizon International Services brings together players that share a new vision of supplier relations such as putting services in place for major international suppliers, drawing on their complementary geographic locations and providing support for SMEs in their international development, among others.

The Horizon International Services alliance will enable Auchan Retail, Casino Group, METRO and DIA to pool their resources to forge balanced and innovative relationships based on a catalogue of common, scalable services, in the best interests of all actors in the supply chain, from the manufacturer through to the consumer.

Auchan Retail is active in 17 countries operating 3,778 points of sale such as hypermarkets, superstores, supermarkets and ultra-convenience stores and it generated €52 billion revenue in 2017. The group is the world’s 35th largest employer with 351,107 employees.

Casino Group runs more than 12,000 stores worldwide relying on over 220,000 employees. The group is active in France, Latin America and in the Indian Ocean region with €38 billion of consolidated net sales in 2017.

METRO is the leading wholesaler for the HoReCa industry (hotels, restaurants and caterers) with some 24 million customers around the world. The company is active in 35 countries and employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. METRO reported sales of €36.5 billion during the financial year 2017/18. Last year (September 2018) METRO AG initiated the divestment process for the food retail chain Real with its 34,000 employees to transform into a pure wholesale company.

DIA, which stands for Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación, is active in the food distribution, household products, health and beauty sectors with EUR9.39 billion gross sales in 2018 from 6,157 stores in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and Argentina.

SOURCE: Casino Group