Système U is a French retailers' cooperative, comprising about eight hundred independent supermarkets; it owns the trademarks Hyper U, Super U, Marché U and Utile, which are used by its members. It had a pre-tax turnover of 12.7 billion Euro in 2002 and 13.8 billion in 2003 , rising to 15.6 billion Euro in 2007; this makes the company the sixth largest retail group in France. It is directly descended from the Pain Quotidien ('daily bread') cooperative which was founded in western France in 1894. It arranged a strategic alliance with the larger E.Leclerc supermarket group in 1999.