By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS, (Reuters) – Retailer Casino announced Thursday that the quarter’s sales momentum had improved. The group saw a decrease in COVID-19 restrictions in France, while sales growth in Brazil, which was the group’s second-largest, continued to be strong.

Casino, which is known for boosting profitability with purchasing deals, cost reductions and core profit growth, has reaffirmed its goal of EBITDA (core profit) growth in France’s retail sector by 2021. The company also revealed a new partnership to Gorillas Quick Commerce Group, Germany.

Casino has already been expanding online through a deal to use British online retailer Ocado’s fulfillment platform, while its Monoprix supermarket arm has a deal with Amazon (NASDAQ:).

Finance chief David Lubek commented on Casino’s new partnership. This will see Casino buy a symbolic stake in Gorillas. Ocado, Amazon and Amazon have been partners. Gorillas are available for fast commerce. “We are well-covered on ecommerce.”

Under the deal, Casino will give Gorillas access to its national brands products, but also to Monoprix’s private label products, which will be available through Gorillas’ app and delivered within minutes to customers in Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Lyon and Nice, the group said.

Gorillas also will pack and ship orders from Monoprix and Franprix websites. These online stores are French micro-fulfilment centers.

Casino has been trying to sell assets in order to lower its debt load. It confirmed that it is moving forward with a disposal strategy to raise 4.5 billion euro ($5.2 billion). There have already been 3.1 billion deals or agreements signed.

In the third quarter, sales at the company, which owns Brazil’s Grupo Poo de Acucar, amounted to 7.7 Billion Euros.

Group sales increased 1% on a store-by-store basis, excluding calendar and fuel effects. This is compared to the 4.1% decrease in sales during the second quarter. France’s city stores suffered from lack of tourists, coronavirus curfew and other factors.

France’s sales dropped 4.3% after falling 8.4% the previous quarter. This was still due to a fall in traffic during the summer season in Paris and the introduction of a health card. After falling 11.4% during the second quarter, French hypermarket sales fell 9.5%.

E-commerce for food continued to be strong with an 26% increase in sales at the same store.

($1 = 0.8663 euros)