Edeka to absorb Tegut network as Migros exits Germany
The package also includes all 41 Teo automated smart stores operated by Smart Retail Solutions.
Germany's largest grocery cooperative is set to expand its footprint significantly after Swiss retail giant Migros announced a full withdrawal from the German market, selling the bulk of its Tegut subsidiary to Edeka.
The deal, filed with Germany's Federal Cartel Office on 24 March, covers 202 Tegut supermarket locations along with the Herzberger Bäckerei bakery business and a logistics center in Hesse. Most notably for the convenience sector, the package also includes all 41 Teo automated smart stores operated by Smart Retail Solutions, the unstaffed, 24/7 mini-market format that Tegut had spun off as an independent concept.
Migros cited a deteriorating trading environment in Germany and sustained operating losses as the reasons for exiting. Despite cost-cutting measures that reduced losses by more than half in 2024, revenues continued to fall. "The analysis clearly showed that a full divestiture is the best long-term option for all stakeholders," the cooperative said in a statement.
The Tegut brand will not be carried forward. The fate of the remaining locations not covered by the Edeka agreement is still being negotiated with other undisclosed buyers, reports Lebensmittel Praxis.
The 41 autonomous stores, which operate without staff around the clock, represent one of Germany's most developed deployments of the unstaffed retail format.
