Jumbo ($10 billion annual turnover) may be a big supermarket to the Dutch public, but buyers at the head office in Vejel sometimes don’t notice it much. They have to negotiate with the world’s largest food producers, such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Nestlé.

And there, on this big world stage, Jumbo was suddenly a bit player.

This is becoming a growing problem for CEO Ton Van Veen and the rest of Jumbo, especially now that groceries are becoming increasingly expensive due to inflation. Negotiations over pricing agreements are difficult, so difficult that they sometimes lead to empty shelves, such as when Jumbo failed to reach an agreement with Mars and there were no more chocolate bars in the store.

“Supermarkets believe that food producers are raising prices more than is actually necessary. This hassle is starting to grow,” says Dirk Mulder, retail expert at ING.

To combat these A-brand manufacturers, Jumbo will cooperate with other major European supermarkets. The Dutch chain joins the Everest buying organisation, including German superpower Edica, which has an annual turnover of more than €60 billion.

In addition, Jumbo also joins Everest’s Epic Partners, including other major European names such as Portuguese Jerónimo Martins and Swiss Migros. In addition to good prices, this organization tries to bring more purchasing benefits.

Suddenly, Jumbo became one of the top European players. This is new for the department store chain, which became big 20 years ago through exciting acquisitions, such as C1000 and Super de Boer. But all this time it remained a modest purchasing organisation, run from its main base in Vigil.

In contrast to Albert Heijn, for example, which in any case feels supported by its internationally operating parent company, Ahold Delhaize, which has a turnover in the billions. It was also announced on Friday that Ahold Delhaize has joined the Eurelec Procurement Centre, founded by German company REWE and French company E.Leclerc. “We have seen price differences between European countries that cannot be objectively explained other than some producers selling the exact same product at different prices in EU countries,” said Wouter Kolk, CEO of Ahold Delhaize Europe and Indonesia.

Global majors Lidl and Aldi can also buy in bulk. Small Dutch supermarkets such as Plus and Coop work together through the purchasing organization Superunie.

Jumbo CEO Van Veen: “We may be number two in the Netherlands in terms of consumers, but we are the smallest in the buying market. We have not been able to adequately cope with the strong position of A-brand manufacturers. This cooperation creates more “Balance.”

Van Veen’s announcement comes at a time when he is trying to revamp Jumbo, or actually wants to get it back on track. “Make Jumbo, as Jumbo was meant to be,” is Van Veen’s motto, a reference to the vision of founder Karel van Eerd, who, among other things, introduced Die Zeeven Zuckerheid, thus making Jumbo great. This means stores with low prices, a wide assortment and good service, but, for example, without expensive sports sponsorships, which is what Jumbo almost stopped doing.

Van Veen goes back to the founder’s vision, when Jumbo isn’t performing well. Last year, Jumbo lost some market share for the first time in its existence, the holy grail in supermarket lands.

Van Veen has used presentations in recent months to inform employees, franchisees and suppliers about the new course. Moreover, new purchasing partners have now been announced: “We are trying to restore the intensity of the past,” says Van Veen. “Thanks to economies of scale, we can negotiate better prices and have a broader and more international reach.”

Van Veen expects this will actually lead to cheaper grocery products, but only through 2024. The CEO has not yet been able to say what kind of price drops and for what products.