After a boycott that lasted over two months, Mars (the producer of candy like M&M’s, Maltesers, Milky Way, Snickers and Twix and petfood like Pedigree and Whiskas) and European purchasing alliance Agecore (Colruyt, Edeka, Intermarché) have finally reached an agreement.
No details announced
The conflict between the two was revealed at the start of December, when several products from Mars’ well-known brands disappeared from the shelves of German supermarket chain Edeka. It was a way for purchasing alliance Agecore to reinforce its demand to lower prices by at least 0.8%. There was still no solution in sight at the end of January, and ever more references were getting depleted.
Now at last, an agreement has been reached: German business website Lebensmittel Zeitung has learnt from reliable sources that the conflict is over. No details have been revealed so far, as is usual in these cases. The products in question are expected to return to the store shelves very soon.
Agecore represents a turnover of about 140 billion euros in Europe. Besides Belgian Colruyt, German Edeka and French Intermarché, it also consists of Coop (Switzerland), Conad (Italy) and Eroski (Spain). The group is no stranger to similar actions: both PepsiCo and Nestlé have been pressured by Agecore in a similar way before.
