Codifrance acquired by Carrefour

Carrefour signed a put option agreement with Colruyt Group on 17 October 2026 to acquire Codifrance, its French wholesale business, for cash at an enterprise value of €152m, an EV/EBITDA multiple of 5x–12x. Completion was expected in the first half of 2027, subject to clearance from the French competition authority and to consultation with employee representatives. Intermarché had also bid, but Carrefour offered more and entered exclusive negotiations earlier in the month. Codifrance supplies around 3,100 convenience stores across France from three distribution centres, delivering 8,000 grocery, fresh and frozen references. Roughly 700 of those shops trade under its banners, Coccinelle, CocciMarket, Panier Sympa, VivÉco and Épi Service, which carry its Belle France private label. It employs close to 380 people and generated revenue of €250–500M with an EBITDA of €5–25M. The affiliation model distinguishes this from other convenience acquisitions. Carrefour does not buy the shops: they belong to independent retailers who contract for supply and, in exchange for a banner and a private label, source from Codifrance. What changes hands is the supply relationship and the logistics behind it, not the retail network itself. That format has been expanding while hypermarkets have struggled, driven by an ageing population and smaller households shopping more often and closer to home. Carrefour already opens 400 convenience stores a year and operated around 9,600 worldwide at the end of June, 5,200 of them in France, supporting independent retailers through its Proxi banner and its more than 1,500 stores. Codifrance adds customers, warehouses and the teams who manage those relationships. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Colruyt Group on the sale, covering corporate, tax, antitrust and employment matters.