Here are Conad’s plans (in Confcommercio) against Esselunga and Carrefour
Words and ambitions of Conad led by Pugliese which joins Confcommercio between facts, rumors and scenarios
Major maneuvers in the field of large-scale distribution, with the role of Conad at the center, increasingly in opposition to Esselunga and Carrefour. While on the number one of Conad, Francesco Pugliese, attention and wishes are pinned, as well as rumors: will he take the place of the historic number one of Confcommercio, Carlo Sangalli?
Here are facts, names, rumors and scenarios.
In recent days there has been a historic agreement in Confcommercio with the entry of the Conad group into the organization, even if Conad's number one, Pugliese, remains (strangely, according to some observers), in Legacoop.
The newspaper on the Gdop “Modern Distribution” commented : “After joining Coldiretti's Italian chain, Conad marries the cause of Confcommercio. And the ceo Francesco Pugliese assumes the position of vice president of Confcommercio with responsibility for taxation and corporate finance. The agreement was reached as part of a framework agreement between ANCD (a political-trade union structure adhering to Legacoop to which the territorial cooperatives and the Conad National Consortium are associated) and Confcommercio, states the joint statement ".
Environments close to Conad obsessively emphasize the theme of greater representation. «Confcommercio has an audience with the institutions that Federdistribuzione has been looking for in vain for years. Sangalli has an open line with the government while Federdistribuzione and industrialists, who asked for a table for the problems generated by inflation, have not even been given an answer ". For some, however, the operation is contradictory: the leader of the large- scale distribution can not snub Federdistribuzione to join Confcommercio, from which Federdistribuzione itself came out 10 years ago due to Sangalli's inability to represent very different realities (modern distribution and traditional commerce) and for the contradictions concerning liberalization. In short, the distributors have never shown compactness, but now it would have been worse.
The arrival of Francesco Pugliese from Conad, commented the expert in the sector, Mario Sassi, “is certainly an important and important entry. Pugliese among other things remains in Legacoop while simultaneously assuming the vice-presidency of Confcommercio. Personally, I find it a choice that looks at the perspective of the entire sector. Other companies are at the same time in formally competing confederations or federations. Both in the Coop world and in the private sector. Some because they find commercial employment contracts more convenient than those of industry, others the services offered by the bilateral system, others by tradition. Still others, and I believe this is the reason that pushed Conad more than others to build bridges instead of walls ”.
An insider who prefers anonymity adds: “Pugliese's goal is to work to reunify the large-scale distribution sector today divided between Confcommercio, Confesercenti, Federdistirbuzione and Coop. And to put together large and small distribution also to face the giants of the network. Given the jealousies between the brands and associations, it will still be a complex operation ".
Other experienced connoisseurs of the sector hypothesize that Pugliese can and will take the reins of the Confcommercio confederation in a sort of agreed and friendly alternation with the historical leader Carlo Sangalli. We will see. Also because there will be Fabrizio Palenzona's next moves to follow ( here the in-depth analysis of Start Magazine ).
In the meantime, differences of views on Federdistribuzione are increasingly noticeable. According to some insiders, Pugliese would not like the presence of Carrefour and Esselunga in Federdistribuzione, the latter accused of having too much weight on the associative orientations. The rest would then be done by the launch of the operation “The high cost of living goes up? We lower the prices ".
“Other observers on the other hand – commented Distribuzione Moderna – assure that on the Federdistribuzione board there is no excessive power from Esselunga: it is well balanced by Selex, VéGé and Finiper. But now the competition between Conad and Esselunga is an objective fact after the establishment of the retailers above the Po line: Pugliese and his team have successfully implemented the integration and stew of Auchan Italia, an operation that few believed in ".
Beyond puffs, tensions and jealousies, the next challenges indicated by Sassi remain: “The management of the National Collective Labor Agreement and the reunification of the entire national trade represent in themselves a decisive challenge. The first has been at the stake for two years and I think just any signature is no longer enough. It must be rethought in depth taking into account that the ongoing crumbling caused by the presence of ferocious dumping on contractual costs does not produce anything good for anyone as well as the stalemate induced by the competition with Federdistribuzione. The latter is equally in trouble. The change at the top did not produce greater leadership. Certainly not for the quality of the people chosen but because the pandemic, the NRP and the general context have changed the balance of the system and the weights necessary to be interlocutors ".
Sassi concludes: "I would add that even that part of the trade union that did not fully understand the scope of the Auchan operation, the context that generated it and the heavy reorganization underway throughout the sector risks finding itself displaced precisely on the national contractual table where the delay in time is likely to add to a delay in processing the contents and evolution of the sector today on the agenda. Delays that should be quickly recovered. Managing the CCNL essentially means this. Taking into account that the social climate is changing everywhere ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/ecco-i-piani-di-conad-in-confcommercio-contro-esselunga-e-carrefour/ on Wed, 01 Dec 2021 09:44:45 +0000.