The sale at Real continues: Actually, competitor Edeka wanted to take over up to 72 locations of the department store chain. The cartel office had concerns about some branches.
Because of the resistance of the Federal Cartel Office, the grocer Edeka has to make significant cuts in its plans to take over up to 72 stores from its competitor Real. Edeka was only allowed to take over 45 Real locations without any conditions, the Bonn cartel watchdog decided on Wednesday.
Edeka is not allowed to buy 21 stores – including locations in Braunschweig, Oldenburg, Karlsruhe, Wesel, Kempten or Bochholt. The office imposed conditions on six other stores in order to ensure competition.
“At a number of locations, we were concerned that Edeka would become too strong in the respective regional markets with the takeover,” said Andreas Mundt, head of the Cartel Office, explaining the decision. “Edeka therefore had to forego around 30 percent of the planned takeovers.”
Edeka may buy these Real locations without any conditions
Edeka may take over the following Real locations without any conditions. It is still unclear whether the grocer will actually rename all of them:
- Aschaffenburg, Horch-Strasse
- Augsburg-Ost, Reichenberger Strasse
- Bamberg, Kirchäckerstraße
- Bannewitz, An der Zschauke
- Bayreuth, Riedinger Strasse
- Bochum-Langendreer, main street
- Bremen-habenhausen, Steinsetzer Strasse
- Bremen, Duckwitzstrasse
- Bremen-Vahr, Vahrer Strasse
- Darmstadt, Eschollbrücker Strasse
- Dettingen / Erms, Im Schwöllbogen
- Duisburg, Berliner Strasse
- Dülmen, on the source mountain
- Düren, Heerweg
- Düsseldorf, Schlueterstrasse
- Filderstadt, Plieninger Strasse
- Flensburg, Schleswiger Strasse
- Freiburg, Gundelfinger Strasse
- Goslar, Gutenbergstrasse
- Groß-Gerau, Mainzer Strasse
- Henstadt-Ulzburg, Gutenbergstrasse
- Horb, Hahnerstrasse
- Kaiserslautern, Mannheimer Strasse
- Karlsruhe-Bulach, Ortenbergstrasse
- Kirchheim am Neckar, Max-Eyth-Strasse
- Kronach, Weissenbrunner Strasse
- Leipzig, Miltitzer Strasse
- Leverkusen, Stixchesstrasse
- Lübeck, Alexander-Fleming-Strasse
- Ludwigshafen, Prälat-Caire-Strasse
- Mutterstadt, An der Fohlenweide
- Neumarkt, Dreichlinger Strasse
- Neuruppin, Babimost-Ring
- Potsdam-Drewitz, Nuthestraße
- Rees, Grüttweg
- Saarbrücken-Dudweiler, Fischbachstrasse
- Salzgitter-Lebenstedt, Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse
- Schleswig, Flensburger Strasse
- Schorfheide, An der B 167
- Schwedt, Landgrabenpark
- Teltow, Oderstrasse
- Weingarten, Franz-Beer-Strasse
- Wiesbaden, Äppelallee
- Wiesbaden, Mainzer Strasse
- Wülfrath, Zur Fliethe
In the event of a takeover, Edeka must meet requirements at the following locations – for example, handing over partial areas to other retailers:
- Boeblingen-Hulb, Otto-Lilienthal-Strasse
- Memmingen, Fraunhofer Strasse
- Nürtingen, Eichendorffstrasse
- Ratingen, Am Sandbach
- Rhede-Vardingholt, Gronauer Strasse
- Würzburg, Nürnberger Strasse
“Another milestone in the sales process”
The Russian Real owner, the financial investor SCP, welcomed the decision as “another milestone in Real’s sales process”. The Düsseldorf Metro group had sold the Real supermarket chain with around 270 stores, around 34,000 employees and annual sales of around seven billion euros to SCP. Metro concentrates on the wholesale business, Real no longer suited this concept. SCP wants to break the chain.
The cartel office had already given the competitor Kaufland the green light to take over up to 92 Real stores. In the course of this decision, SCP had promised to sell locations with a total procurement volume of at least 200 million euros to medium-sized food retailers.
For one such retailer, the Globus Group, the authority had approved the takeover of up to 24 Real locations. Another real tranche is now going to Edeka. “With the takeover, the Edeka Group is expanding its strong market position in the purchase of groceries,” said Mundt. The fact that SCP also surrenders real markets to medium-sized competitors creates competition.
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