Carrefour to buy Codifrance in €152m cash deal

(Sharecast News) - France's Carrefour has agreed to snap up wholesale business Codifrance in a �152m deal, it was announced on Monday.

Colruyt Group, Codifrance's Belgian owner, confirmed it had accepted a binding cash offer from the supermarket giant following exclusive talks between two companies.

Colruyt said the sale would allow Codifrance, a major distributor to French convenience stores, to "fully realise its growth potential". Employing nearly 380 people and with around 3,100 customers, it generated revenues of �307m in the most recent full year.

Chief executive Stefan Goethaert acknowledged that the sale would have a "significant and emotional impact" on Codifrance's employees.

But he continued: "Codifrance has developed into a leading distributor to local retailers in France. At the same time, we see that the French retail market is evolving rapidly and consolidating further. From this perspective, we believe that Codifrance could fully capitalise on its growth potential in an environment that would be better aligned with its market and ambitions."

Carrefour said the deal would consolidate its leadership position in the convenience market. "This transaction is fully in line with the strategic objective set by Carrefour 2030 to pursue our growth in convenience retail and to make selective acquisitions of high-value assets," said chief executive Alexandre Bompard. "This excellent business is highly complementary to [convenience store division] Carrefour Proximite."

The deal is slated to complete in the first half of 2027.