Germany-based Metro Group plans to restructure its hypermarket banner Real, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports. The separation between domestic and international business is due to be abolished, probably as the Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) business is shortly to go on sale.
It is likely that the entire Real business will be led by Didier Fleury, who has been in charge of the CEE Real business since 2008. As a result, the contract of banner Director Real Germany, Roland Neuwald, will reportedly not be renewed. However, Metro Group has stated that “a merger of the two units, Real Germany and Real International, is not planned".
According to LZ, a new structure could arise because of targeted portfolio adjustments in the Real network. Any planned sale of the CEE division would be in an advanced stage. "However, there is no decision to sell Real international, and there have been no concrete negotiations so far," a Metro Group spokesperson said.
Metro Group has always stressed it is interested in selling the business as a whole. Without the CEE business, Real’s results would be worse as the German business has struggled for years. However, in the event of a sale of its CEE operations, the most likely potential buyer of the current 110 Real outlets in Russia, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine could be Auchan, as the company already operates stores in all these countries, with the exception of Turkey.
