Internationalisation of the food retailing industry and its impact on the agricultural and food industries

An analysis of the German food retailing industry and its development over recent years shows clear structural change. The structural change is expressed in concentration processes i. e. a decrease in the number of enterprises and a concurrent increase in company size, and a change in enterprises' organisational forms, i. e. there is increasing differentiation in the forms that enterprises are taking. (14). These changes also affect the trading companies' growth strategies. Whereas, 25 years ago, it was common for companies in the food retailing industry to operate only at national level, today the name of many enterprises, e. g., METRO Group, already indicates a certain internationality. The retail companies that traded at national level have now been transformed into multinational groups. Based on these changes, it must be accepted that the global concentration process in the retailing industry has had, or will have in the near future, considerable consequences for the food industry.