EUROPE: Walmart subsidiary ASDA joins European purchase alliance EMD | Progresiv
Walmart's British subsidiary, ASDA, has entered a European strategic purchase alliance, EMD. It is part of an aggressive strategy, aimed to offer lower prices through structurally lower costs. Suppliers will have to do their part in achieving that. 
With this move, ASDA will add 31 billion euro in purchase power to the EMD purchase alliance, which will now represent an 178 billion euro organization. The British Walmart subsidiary will join forces with, among others, German Kaufland (which belongs to the Schwarz Gruppe and is an affiliate chain to Lidl), French Casino and the Dutch purchase alliance Superunie.
"For all manufacturers operating in the field of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) this partnership opens up new opportunities on both sides of the channel", EMD writes in a press release about ASDA's admittance. Clearly, the primary goal for such a purchase alliance is to get better prices for their purchases and will lead to suppliers having to offer even lower prices to all retailers connected to EMD.
ASDA's move to join EMD has everything to do with its strategy to continuously cut its costs and therefore lower its prices to consumers. It is the essence of the "roll back" strategy and the "productivity loop" that helped build Walmart's empire. (www.retaildetail.eu)
