Epic Partners, the international purchasing group created by Edeka last year, has welcomed two retailers among its shareholders: French Système U and Italian Esselunga. Besides Edeka, Epic consists of Dutch Picnic, Swiss Migros, Jerónimo Martins (Portugal) and Ica (Sweden). Russian retailer Magnit was also part of the alliance at its inception, but the cooperation was suspended in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Epic Partners is led by Gianluigi Ferrari, former boss of the Agecore alliance, and negotiates cross-border marketing conditions for members. With the two new partners, the group is covering retailers in over ten countries in Europe. While all members are big players in their own country they do not have a significant international business. So, they don’t really compete with each other and together they are more of a heavyweight player against the large multinational manufacturers.