Supermarket groups Carrefour and Tesco will not extend purchasing alliance By Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) – French supermarket group Carrefour (PA:CARR) and its British peer Tesco (LON:TSCO) said on Monday they would not extend a purchasing alliance between the two companies.

They said in a joint statement that “they have decided not to extend their purchasing alliance beyond the three-year operational framework agreed in 2018.”

The alliance formally ends on Dec. 31, they said, adding that the two would now focus on opportunities independently.

The purchasing agreement https://www.reuters.com/article/cbusiness-us-carrefour-tesco-suppliers-a-idCAKBN1JT2IU-OCABS had aimed to allow Carrefour and Tesco to cut prices and expand ranges of their own-label products.

Carrefour has been keen to show it can grow by itself, after its potential takeover from Canadian rival Couche-Tard unravelled this year following French government opposition.

Carrefour agreed this year to buy Brazil’s third-biggest food retailer Grupo BIG, and the company also posted strong first quarter results in April.

By contrast, Tesco reported in April a 20% drop in full-year pretax profit as the cost of adapting the business for the pandemic wiped out the benefit of “exceptionally strong” grocery sales.