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New press
speculations: Is Wal-Mart preparing to buy the Marks & Spencer stores in France? Wal-Mart has made an offer to buy 18 of the 38 Marks & Spencer stores in France, says French news magazine Le Point. The magazine says that this would be a base from which Wal-Mart could attack its French competitor Carrefour. The article in Le Point also mentions department store operator Galeries Lafayette among the companies which are interested in Marks & Spencer's stores, as well as Japan's fast expanding clothing chain Uniqlo. French multi-format retailer Pinault-Printemps-Redoute is said to be less eager. None of these companies are reported as being interested in all M&S stores. Would Marks & Spencer sell the stores to Wal-Mart, it would be a final blow in the face of its French workers. The U.S. retail giant is known as a bad anti-union employer, particularly in its American home market. Marks & Spencer put itself into a lot of trouble by the arrogant way in which it treated its workers when it decided to close its continental European operations. A major Uni Commerce demonstration in London last spring speeded up the improvement of workers' consultation rights in the European Union. |
