Karlstads universitet 651 88 Karlstad Tfn 054-700 10 00 Fax 054-700 14 60
[email protected] www.kau.se Faculty of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT Anne-Kathrin Meier Gildas Aïtamer The Different International Strategies of European Grocery Retailers - The Case of Groupe Casino and REWE Group - Business Administration Master Thesis Date: 2010-05-19 Supervisor: Per Skålén Karlstads universitet 651 88 Karlstad Tfn 054-700 10 00 Fax 054-700 14 60
[email protected] www.kau.se Acknowledgments This paper has been written with the encouragement and creative support of several other people to whom we would like to express our gratitude. The help that we received while working on and accomplishing our thesis made this experience more pleasant. We would like to thank our families and friends for the support and the advice during the last weeks. Special thanks go to our supervisor, Professor Per Skålén. His advice to our thesis during every stage has contributed to the accomplishment of our paper. His constructive feedbacks, his knowledge and experience as well as recommendations and patience, enabled us to carry out this research successfully. Finally we would like to mention here, that the constructive criticism and the experience we made has been beneficial for our team work and our research abilities. Anne-Kathrin Meier Gildas Aïtamer 2 Abstract The retail sector is at the forefront of internationalisation activities. It is especially the case for German and French retailers that operate respectively 27,8% and 20,6% of non domestic outlets in Western Europe. Stating this, the grocery retailers have also drastically changed their orientation, from domestic to multinational players since two decades: a relatively new and important subject that needs to be taken into account.