BERLIN, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Germany's largest supermarket chain Edeka told press on Tuesday that it had so far failed to resolve its retail dispute in ongoing negotiations with the global foodstuffs producer Nestle.
"We have made progress compared to last week, but we are still far away from reaching an agreement," a statement by Edeka chief executive officer Markus Mosa read.
Mosa added that while he was keen to "end the dispute", an existing offer from Nestle was "not acceptable" as a means to address what Edeka perceives as an issue of preferential treatment for its German rivals Aldi and Rewe.
Edeka is leading a widely-publicized charge of the European retail alliance Agecore in an attempt to force Nestle to offer better prices and trading conditions.
Agecore, which includes the French Intermarche chain and Coop stores in Switzerland, has threatened to remove 163 Nestle products from its aisles unless the Swiss-based foodstuffs giant offers better purchasing terms.
Nestle is the world's largest food producer, recording combined revenue of 90 billion euros (111 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017. Although Agecore members only account for just over one percent of Nestle's global revenue, this would consequently still amount to potential annual losses of 900 million euros.
According to reports of German media, the dispute was nearing its end as a basic compromise had been found by the negotiating teams of Agecore and Nestle. However, the agreement had yet to be signed as several important details still needed to be clarified.
Edeka recently revealed that its annual revenue grew by 5.4 percent in 2017 to reach the record level of 51.9 billion euros. The retailer is largely organized as a cooperative society, meaning that around half of that figure was contributed by 3,800 independent retail entrepreneurs while the remaining figure was provided by the discounter subsidiary Netto.
