22/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - Five independent supermarket chains (Colruyt (Belgium),CONAD (Italy), COOP (Switzerland), E.Leclerc (France) and REWE Group(Germany)) have decided to team up to form COOPERNIC, the European Purchasing and Negotiating Pool of Independent Supermarkets, to exchange know-how, slash the cost of logistics and expand supply. COOPERNIC's combined annual turnover is around EUR 96 bn (10% of the European market) with more than 17000 sales outlets in 17 countries in Europe.