Metro Cash & Carry, Uber enter into alliance

Metro Cash and Carry and global ride-sharing company Uber today announced an alliance to offer driver partners a membership with the wholesale chain.

Starting from Bengaluru, this alliance will soon be extended pan-India to all Metro and Uber driver partners, a joint statement said.

This membership will include special offers and discounts that will be made exclusively available to all Uber driver partners, it added.

Also, existing customers of Metro will benefit by this alliance with special offers and promos from Uber exclusively for Metro.

To mark the commencement of the initiative, 15 Uber driver partners were handed over Metro cards by the company's COO Pieter Boone, along with Christoph Winterer, Operating Partner, Asia Region, Metro Cash and Carry, and Arvind Mediratta, CEO & MD, Metro Cash and Carry India.

"India is a very important market for Metro and we are glad to kick-off this initiative from here.

"Through this partnership we aim at providing them access to the wide range of car accessories, oils, lubricants, confectionery and beverages at our wholesale outlets which will be instrumental towards making their business more profitable," Boone said in the statement.

"This alliance benefits our customers too. They can enjoy the ease of carrying the usual bulk purchase made at our store in an Uber, at a discounted price," he added.

Metro Cash and Carry is represented in 25 countries with over 750 self-service wholesale stores. With a headcount of more than 100,000 employees worldwide, the wholesale company reported sales of around 29 billion in financial year 2015/16.

It entered the Indian market in 2003 and currently operates 24 wholesale distribution centres in the country. PTI DSK RSY BAS