Italian retail cooperative Conad Nord Ovest, via its Nordovest Insieme unit, has acquired three stores from Italian retailer Bennet for €4.4 million.
The acquired stores include Via Verolengo in Turin (3,571 square metres, sold for €1.9 million), Via Galliera in Ovada (1,948 square metres, valued at €1.5 million) and Via Guido Rossa in Verbania (1,499 square metres, purchase price of €1 million).
As the three stores exceeded the €31 million turnover threshold in 2022, the transaction was notified to Italy’s Antitrust Authority who has to give its green light to the deal.
The expectation is that there should be no merger problems, as Conad does not have a dominant position in Northwest and Northeast Italy.
As part of the acquisition process, all three stores will be rebranded from Bennet to Conad.
The Transaction
The divestment is part of Bennet’s strategy to rationalise its retail network, while the acquisition will enable Conad Nord Ovest to expand its footprint in the Northern Italian regions of Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta, Liguria and Lombardy.
Conad consists of five member cooperatives (in addition to Conad Nord Ovest, Conad Centro Nord, Commercianti Indipendenti Associati, Conad Adriatico, and PAC 2000A).
Since 2019, thanks to the acquisition of Auchan Retail Italia, it has become the leading chain in the large-scale retail sector in Italy with more than 3,300 stores and 72,000 employees.
Founded in 1964 and owned by the Ratti family, Bennet has withdrawn from the Friuli and Veneto regions, while retaining ownership of the properties and sold some stores in the provinces of Brescia, Alessandria, Turin, Verbania, and Piacenza.
The retailer, which is part of retail cooperative Gruppo VéGé, currently owns 25 stores, mainly hypermarkets, of which 14 in Veneto, five in Brescia, two in Mantua, one in Cremona, and three in Emilia-Romagna.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
