Le Fourgon acquires Re-pot to multiply its returnable packaging

An online supermarket without plastics and with all returnable packaging. Milk, sugar, even eggs, in glass jars or egg cartons: all are returned, and all start the cycle again. This circular path has been traced by the Barcelona startup Re-pot Market since 2021 and, now, it is scaling up. The French company Le Fourgon has acquired the Catalan company, in an operation to grow in the Spanish market, with which Re-pot maintains its team, values, and current operations.

"The operation will allow the project to grow," highlights Re-pot co-founder Alejandro Roset, who has been promoting the sustainable supermarket since 2020 together with Javier Maella. Friends since childhood, in the midst of the pandemic they began to focus on the problem of plastic and waste generation, and decided to combine Maella's economic background and Roset's as an industrial engineer to design Re-pot.

"We saw that it made sense to create a real alternative to reduce the negative impact of plastic," by creating an online plastic-free supermarket that would allow the return of the containers used. Thus, they started with a small website and a reduced product catalog to test market interest: "And we saw that Re-pot's proposal and values fit."

Thus, in 2021 they fully launched into the project. Re-pot expanded its catalog to about 600 references with the aim of covering the basic shopping basket, under a clear premise: "To ensure that the customer can consume the usual products, but in a circular format." From there, the startup made the leap from home deliveries to also working with companies. Combining this home shopping in Barcelona and its surroundings and services to companies, Re-pot has so far prevented more than 32,400 kilos of packaging from ending up in the trash as waste.

With the acquisition by Le Fourgon, the purpose is to double this figure by the end of 2026. "In two years, the goal is to multiply it by five," says Roset. On this path, they plan to open in new cities starting in 2027, beginning with Valencia and Madrid, and hand in hand with Le Fourgon. Founded in Lille in 2021 by Charles Christory, Stéphane Dessein and Maxime Tharin, the firm already covers 45% of French territory and more than 3,000 cities. Now, it focuses on Barcelona as a starting point for its growth in Southern Europe, taking advantage of Re-pot's operations.

The path to the acquisition began to be woven in 2023, when the Re-pot team came into contact with Le Fourgon within the framework of European networks linked to responsible consumption. "We have always tried to create a network at a European level to boost the impact of initiatives like ours," says Roset. This exchange of experiences and the affinity of vision have ended up leading to this operation, with which Le Fourgon acquires 100% of Re-pot with the intention of betting on the Spanish market and accelerating its growth.

Despite the integration, the essence of the project remains valid. "All operations, values, and objectives are maintained," emphasizes Roset. The team —currently made up of seven people— will also continue to lead the development in Barcelona, with the aim of making it grow.

So much so that Le Fourgon now aims to exceed one million reused containers in Barcelona in a year and generate twenty jobs. In France, Le Fourgon has already reused more than 50 million bottles and jars, with a system that allows each container to be used up to 40 times. All with one objective, shared by Re-pot and which will now be amplified: to demonstrate that reusing and consuming circularly is not only possible, but also scalable.