EDEKA-Verbund

The German grocery market is worth over 250 billion euros, controlled by four retail groups.

I spent 16 years inside three of them as a buying director at Edeka, Rewe and Lidl.

This is Decoding German Retail.

What no buyer tells you.

Sometimes the most important one, often not.

If you walk into a meeting assuming price is the only variable, you have already lost 14 other opportunities to build a stronger case before you even opened your mouth.

Number six, the region can overrule the center, especially at Edeka, but also to varying degrees at Rewe and in the Schwarz Group's regional operations, meaning the other countries.

The central negotiation sets the frame.

To me, organic varies quite significantly.

I've done some personal blind tests with like Aldi, Lidl, Edeka, Rewe, Tegood, like the organic range and the diameter stuff that we grow here.

And obviously what we grow here is like 10 times fresher and has less food miles.

So, yeah.

So I just think if you think about where your food is from and where it's grown, And this is every food group.

This is wine, sugar, chocolate, bananas, everything.

Please stop buying those Driscoll's berries at Edeka.

Just don't do it.

Ist kein Witz.

Ich, es gibt bei Edeka gibt's so Zartbitter-Haferkekse und ich glaub, ich kauf eine Packung pro Woche.

Das ist nicht so 'ne riesige Packung wie die Anza-Kekse, das ist keine Family Pack.

Aber ich bin wirklich, ich liebe Kekse.

The German grocery market is worth over 250 billion euros, controlled by four retail groups.

I spent 16 years inside three of them as a buying director at Edeka, Rewe and Lidl.

This is Decoding German Retail.

What no buyer tells you.

Reason one, four groups, one rulebook.

The German grocery market is controlled by four retail groups that between them hold roughly 85% of the total market.

Edeka, Rewe, the Schwarz Group, which is Lidl and Kaufland, and Aldi, Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord.

Four buyers, four sets of central conditions, four negotiation calendars.

If, if you say he has four, five customers, uh, probably like the food and beverage.

You have EDEKA, you go to Lidl, ALDI.

[laughs] That's it, basically, yeah.

These are your customers.

And then, uh, it's ALDI who knows what, who buys.

It's Kaufland who knows who buys.

EDEKA and so on, huh? This will change, uh, dramatically.

And-