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The Tegut supermarket chain will soon no longer exist. Owner Migros is currently looking for buyers for the locations. A contract has now been signed with the Rewe Group.
Cologne/Fulda – Rewe plans to take over up to 40 Tegut branches. As the German Press Agency reports, the company has concluded a corresponding contract with the Migros Zurich cooperative. However, the transaction still needs to be approved by the Federal Cartel Office.
Rewe wants to take over up to 40 Tegut branches
If the authorities agree, Rewe will operate the majority of the stores itself, while some will be transferred to the discount subsidiary Penny. The company did not provide any information about the purchase price or the affected locations. Rewe wants to make job offers to Tegut employees. Peter Maly, board member of the Rewe Group, explains in a press release: “We want to take responsibility for the locations and their teams. For us, this means securing jobs as well as high-quality local supplies. This means we can give employees and the markets an economic perspective. For us, the focus is on developing viable locations and promoting and welcoming our employees.”
Migros recently announced that it wanted to withdraw from the German market and sell Tegut. Edeka wants to take over the lion's share – around 200 of the around 300 supermarkets. The package also includes the logistics center in Hünfeld-Michelsrombach and around 40 “Teo” mini markets. However, this transaction also still requires the approval of the cartel office.
Aldi Nord is also showing interest in some locations, as the dpa reports. The same applies to “Aunt Enso”. Migros had already announced in March that it was negotiating with Rewe. It remains to be seen whether all existing Tegut stores will actually continue to operate.
Antitrust lawyers expect intensive scrutiny from the Cartel Office
“The branches are largely sold to other food retailers,” says the annual financial statements of the Migros Zurich cooperative. Legal experts are sometimes critical of the planned takeovers. The antitrust lawyer at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Rupprecht Podszun, complains that the large retail chains in Germany have too much market power.
He expects an intensive review by the cartel office and believes it is possible that the authority will ban the projects in whole or in part. Rolf Lange, spokesman for Edeka headquarters, emphasizes: “Prohibiting the takeover by Edeka and other large German food retailers would have serious consequences for the supply of consumers and for thousands of jobs, as locations are threatened with closures.”
Realistically, only the large German food retailers are eligible to take over the Tegut stores. “Foreign investors shy away from entering the German market because it is so competitive and characterized by low margins,” explained Lange. Edeka was also ready to take over Tegut completely.
Tegut employs almost 7,500 people
In order to speed up the procedure at the cartel office, the branch package was limited. Tegut, founded in Fulda in 1947, was taken over by Migros at the beginning of 2013 and is represented in six federal states. According to the company, there are around 340 Tegut branches, including the “Teo” mini markets.
Migros employs around 7,500 people at Tegut. Along with Edeka, the Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland) and Aldi, Rewe is one of the largest food retailers in Germany and operates around 3,800 branches in this country, while the discounter Penny has more than 2,100 locations (with dpa material)
