Up to 800 by 2016
The E. Leclerc group firmly believes in “drives” and has been paving the way
for years. It added 127 new
locations in 2012 and another 174 in 2013. “I have written permissions
for another 150 drives in 2014”, Pascal Payraudeau had said. He is the one
responsible for the expansion of this network.
If it manages to open these additional locations, E.Leclerc will have some 600 drives by the end of 2014. That
does not mean it will have to end there: Payraudeau believes France can host 800 E.Leclerc drives.
That number should be reached by 2016 if the chain keeps up this pace.
France has 2,874 “drives”
France received an additional 719 delivery points last year, bumping the total to
2,874 according to the people at LSA. Especially the three large groups were
quite active: Intermarché opened up
another 202, E.Leclerc 174 and Carrefour 144.
LSA believes E.Leclerc gets a 1.5
billion euro turnover out of its 453 drives. That is more than Auchan,
which uses Chronodrive and Auchandrive to generate a 1 billion euro turnover.
