Marjane is rebranding its Acima chain as Marjane Market. The popular supermarket chain, which is owned by the King of Morocco, is facing growing competition in the neighbourhood retailing space from Carrefour/Label’Vie’s Carrefour Market banner and Turkish small format discounter BIM.

Acima has tried to rebrand before, with little success. Critics pointed out a distinct similarity between the new heart shaped logo and that of AirBnB. The new rebrand comes the company rolls out a new strategy, aimed at countering the twin threats of Turkish small format discounter BIM (465 stores in Morocco) and Carrefour/Label’Vie’s new Supeco banner. Marjane will guarantee the price of 300 core products in a bid to retain customers won over by rivals’ everyday low pricing (EDLP) model.

Another factor for the rebrand is popularity: according to a poll conducted by leading Moroccan business newspaper L’Economiste in 2018 looking at shoppers’ preferred chain, Marjane accounted for 36% of responses. Acima accounted for 4%. Carrefour/Label’Vie accounted for 7% and BIM also accounted for 7%.

Marjane needs the Marjane Market banner to work to compete more effectively in the neighbourhood retail space. The company is the clear market leader in supermarket retail generally in Morocco but is on borrowed time. At the moment, Acima has 38 stores, compared to BIM’s 465 and Carrefour Market’s 58 (and two further Carrefour Gourmet Market stores).

In 2014, Marjane launched the Xpress Market discount banner, positioned on price above BIM but below Carrefour Market. Marjane’s parent Cofarma has also launched Otop, a new hard discount neighbourhood supermarket with two initial stores in Casablanca. The company has not extended the trial so far.