Amazon and Casino, a French retailer, have announced that they are expanding their partnership, giving yet more weight to speculation that the companies are gearing up to agree a much larger scale deal soon.
The extended partnership will see Amazon installing pick-up lockers in 1,000 Casino stores across France in nine of Casino's brands – Monoprix, Monop, Geant, Hyper Casino, Casino Supermarche, Leaderprice, Viva and Spar – in 2019. Around 3,500 of Casino's products will now also be available on Amazon's retail site.
Additionally, Monoprix, Casino's upmarket supermarket chain, will be extending its partnership with Amazon Prime Now grocery delivery service outside Paris and into other French cities over the next 12 months.
While the financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, the deal follows a number of financial woes from the French retailer, with Casino selling assets and cutting debt as it tries to relieve investor fears over it and its parent company, Rallye's, finances.
Tina Schuler, CEO of LeaderPrice, Casino Supermarches, Geant Casino and Casino Proximites, commented that the deal would help Casino "boost traffic and revenues in e-commerce and in stores", while Amazon would benefit from "Casino's dense store network, which it views as a real strength".
Gregoire Laverne, fund manager at Roche Brune Asset Management, remarked: "This co-operation should help Casino further strengthen its e-commerce footprint as part of its goal to generate revenue of €1bn ($1.1bn) from the sale of groceries online."
