Swiss food group Nestle (NESN.S) and German grocer Edeka have reached a tentative compromise in their months-long price fight and are now negotiating details of a new contract, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Edeka, Germany’s largest supermarket group, had written to its stores recommending they drop an increased number of Nestle products, an escalation of a pricing row between the world’s biggest packaged food maker and European retailers.
Last week, Edeka-led AgeCore, a Geneva-based group of six European retailers including Switzerland’s Coop, reached a tentative deal, FAZ reported, citing an anonymous source that the German newspaper said was involved in negotiations.
“Nestle managers were willing to make concessions on key points,” the source said.
The newspaper reported that the supermarket group, among other things, was demanding that Kit Kat-maker Nestle contribute more to cooperative marketing campaigns.
Edeka and Nestle declined to comment on a potential deal to end the dispute, which has emerged as the latest outward sign of tension between European retailers and suppliers at a time of changing consumer tastes and new online competition.
It also comes at a time when Nestle, under the leadership of new Chief Executive Mark Schneider, is reeling from its weakest annual sales growth in at least two decades that has prompted shareholder pressure to boost revenue and profit margins.
Nestle was not immediately available for comment.
