At its annual results conference, the British group Kingfisher announced a proposed buying partnership with its French competitor Mr. Bricolage.
The Kingfisher group has announced the start of negotiations for a partnership with Mr. Bricolage, in order to combine their purchases. The aim is to strengthen their position in relation to suppliers, but also to strengthen the links with their joint national and international partners and to offer them new commercial opportunities in order to create added value. The joint venture is expected to come into being in the second half of 2023, and then start negotiations with suppliers for the 2024/25 financial year.
Faced with this partnership project, the question arises as to the difference in scale between the British giant and the French retailer. In 2022, the Mr. Bricolage group achieved a turnover of 2.35 billion euros, compared to nearly 14.9 billion euros for Kingfisher, despite a drop in its sales in France, notably at Brico Dépôt. The new joint venture will thus have a value of more than €17 billion.
When announcing the proposed purchase partnership, the two groups stated that they would continue to maintain their own commercial policies.