French supermarket chain Casino is reportedly in the process of selling Leader Price to Aldi for a little over €400 million. The group has been following an active approach of selling loss-making stores across all its formats and has already sold 20 Leader Price units to Lidl.
The strategy is accelerating since the announcement of a new plan to sell a total of €2bn in assets. Nevertheless, the sale of Leader Price raises the question about the future of Casino’s franchised stores. There are currently 330 of them, representing half of the network (665).
Leader Price had 207 outlets franchised in 2014 out of a total of 801. Its acquisition would allow Aldi to gain ground in its competition with Lidl. Its market share hovers around 2.2% while Lidl held 6.0% in Q2 2019. As a whole, Leader Price accounts for 2% of purchases of PGC Frais LS.
