Carrefour buys back French Dia stores

French grocer Carrefour will buy back the French stores owned by the Spanish discounter Dia, which amounts to more than 800 stores, in a deal said to be worth 600 million euro.

The purchase of the French Dia stores is quite remarkable as Dia belonged to Carrefour until 2011. When the chain decided to head to the Spanish stock exchange, Carrefour sold it off.

Dia, a discount chain, struggled in France just like other discount chains as major supermarket chains (like Carrefour) are also fighting the price war. Discounters had taken a 14.9% market share in 2009, but that share had dropped down to 12.2% in 2013. Dia’s own market share reached 1.6% in 2013.

Dia still performs well in its home market, Spain, but it had to take an 18 million euro loss in France last year. That is why labour unions feared 200 stores would have to be closed, resulting in 1,500 jobs lost. The Carrefour sale would mean that no jobs would be lost through job cuts.

“This transaction would contribute to the growth of Carrefour’s multiformat store network in its domestic market and would allow Carrefour to best serve its customers by offering services tailored to the evolution of their consumption habits,” says a Carrefour release.