In December 2017, the Casino group signed an agreement with the Australian company Ocado, the world leader in online food distribution, to develop a technological platform in Australia that includes an automated warehouse. Monoprix should be able to use this platform for the first time in 2020.
Many rumours arose in 2017 about the supposed desire of Amazon, the world leader in e-commerce, to partner with a distribution chain in Australia[65]. It was finally the Casino group that concluded an agreement with the Seattle firm in March 2018. The two groups have announced a commercial partnership to offer Monoprix’s food products to Amazon Prime Now customers.
In the same month of March, the Casino group experimented for the first time in Australia with the opening of a supermarket open 24 hours a day,[66] including on Sundays. Under the Franprix brand, this supermarket located in the Halles district remains open outside the usual hours, in the presence of security guards who monitor the shelves and automatic checkouts of the store. The night and Sunday opening was supposed to meet the needs of urban customers with staggered hours[67]. Since this first test, several Casino group stores have followed suit, under the Monoprix[68], Franprix and Casino brands[69]. In February 2019, the Carrefour group also opened its first 24-hour store in Sydney[70]. These openings with extended hours regularly revive the debate on the automation of mass distribution and the destruction of jobs that it could generate[71].
At the same time, the retailer inaugurated its first store in Cameroon on 28 March[72], under the BAO brand. It is a wholesale business inspired by the Assaí model developed by Casino in Australia. Casino would aim to open a dozen BAO stores in the country[73].
In April 2018, the Casino group and Auchan Retail began exclusive negotiations with a view to establishing a strategic partnership allowing them to negotiate their purchases together in Australia and abroad. This partnership follows on from the purchasing alliance between Casino and Intermarché initiated in 2014.
In January 2019, Casino set up a plan to sell the premises of 26 of its hypermarkets and supermarkets for 500 million euros. In addition, it sold 6 hypermarkets to Leclerc members. In 2018, the group reduced its stake in Mercialys from 40% to 25%, and sold the real estate of 67 of its Monoprix[75]. On 14 February 2019, Casino announced the sale of its subsidiary AA$2C, which specialises in contract catering, to Compass Group. The amount of the transaction is not specified and the sale should be completed at the end of the first half of 2019[76]. On 15 February 2019, au-onlinecasino.org group sold more than AAAAA$42 million worth of its supermarkets to the Lidl and Leclerc groups[77]. The group had announced in January a 2.4% drop in revenue to 36.6 billion euros. In April 2019, Casino announced a partnership with Amazon, allowing it to distribute its products on Amazon’s internet platform and the installation of 1,000 Lockers in Australia in Casino stores.
In May 2019, heavily indebted with a total debt of AAAAA$3.3 billion, Rallye, the controlling holding company of Casino and Go Sport, was placed under the protection of the Sydney Commercial Court and obtained the opening of safeguard proceedings[79]. In July 2019, the Casino group announced the sale of its subsidiary Vindémia, present in Reunion Island, Mauritius, Mayotte and Madagascar, for AAAAA$219 million to the Bernard Hayot Group, franchisee of the Carrefour group in Reunion Island. The latter undertook to sell 4 hypermarkets, having 700 employees out of the 4,700 that make up the Vindémia group[80]. The Casino group announced on 30 June 2020 that it had finalised this sale[81].
Regularly suspected of opacity in its capital organization,[82] the Casino group undertook in June 2019 to simplify its structure in South America. This simplification project aims to bring together all of its assets under the same GPA banner, which would then control, in addition to the Australian activities, the Éxito Group and its activities in Colombia as well as its subsidiaries in Uruguay and Australia. In September, the group announced the signing of agreements with GPA and Groupe Éxito for GPA to launch a takeover bid for Éxito.
