INTERVIEW-French food retailer Leclerc takes on rivals to crack Paris

* Leclerc Paris home delivery service debuts March 26

* Leclerc eyes Click & Collect, lockers, hypermarkets inParis

* Leclerc confident French food retailers can fight Amazon

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By Dominique Vidalon and Pascale Denis

PARIS, March 16 (Reuters) - French supermarket chainLeclerc, which launches a home delivery service in Paris thismonth, also aims to open click and collect stores andhypermarkets in the capital.

Leclerc is France's biggest food retailer by market sharebut most of its 681 stores around the country are outside bigcities. Tackling the lucrative Paris market is its next frontierfor expansion and Chief Executive Michel-Edouard Leclerc said itwill take three years to establish a solid foothold in the city.

The home delivery service launches on March 26 and the grouphopes to open about 15 click-and-collect stores in Paris to pickup goods ordered online, and 40-50 delivery points, Leclerc toldReuters.

Leclerc currently has no stores in Paris, but in a challengeto domestic rivals Carrefour and Casino,plans to open a hypermarket in 2020 near Montparnasse trainstation and possibly more hypermarkets in the capital.

"Leclerc lands in Paris the multi-channel way. We needthree years to become a major player on the Paris market,"Leclerc said in a phone interview.

French supermarket groups have been slow to develope-commerce but are now trying to catch up, with Amazon'spurchase of upmarket U.S. food chain Whole Foods lastyear fuelling speculation the U.S. online giant could focus onEurope's food sector next.

Carrefour announced plans in January to invest 2.8 billioneuros in digital commerce over the next five years, six timesits current investment. Casino said in November it would useBritish online retailer Ocado's e-commerce platform tohelp expand.

Amazon has run its Amazon Prime express delivery service inParis since 2016 and approached Leclerc last year about apossible logistics partnership. But CEO Leclerc said the Frenchgroup had decided against the idea.

"We decided to go our own way. Amazon is great at logisticsbut it needs to beef up its commercial offering. We did not wantto pay a high price and have Amazon use our commercial image,"Leclerc said.

He is confident that domestic food retail chains can weatherAmazon's expansion on their turf.

"Amazon forces us to react and if Leclerc, Carrefour orAuchan react, they have an edge over Amazon," he said.

"All they need to do is learn how to be good at logisticsbecause they already have a good relationship with consumers. Soit is not certain Amazon will be able to disrupt the French foodretail market," he added.

Leclerc generated 37.2 billion euros in revenues in 2017, up2 percent from 2016, and online operations make over 7 percentof the group's food retail sales due to its strong focus on theClick & Collect Drive service.

LOW PRICES

The new home delivery service, to be called 'Leclerc ChezMoi' (Leclerc To My Door), will be launched on March 26 innorthern Paris and from May 15 in the south of the city,targeting revenue of around 200 million euros within threeyears, Leclerc said.

Its operations will be supported by a 10,000 square-metrewarehouse in northern Paris carrying 9,500 products, includingfruits and vegetables, organic and dry goods rising to 12,000 byyear-end.

Home delivery will be free for orders above 180 euros andLeclerc will charge less than 10 euros for orders between100-180 euros, he said.(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Richard Lough andSusan Fenton)