At the head of Scamark, the entity that produces E.Leclerc’s distributor brands (Our regions have talent, Mark Mark, Eco+), Frédéric Gheeraert is more worried than he seems, when he lists his current constraints. He details pell-mell: the logistics with the “Rising fuel prices, lack of carriers and containers that remain expensive” for products imported from China; the scarcity of oil and mustard, used in recipes; rising costs “production side” with the explosion in the price of the energy needed to manufacture fertilizers, but also materials such as glass and aluminum. “It’s simple, I don’t have an example of a cost that doesn’t moveconcludes the general manager of Scamark. Even the water! The price of water does not change, except that, to produce water bottles, you need electricity, plastic, transport…”
Since the inflationary wave intensified with the war in Ukraine, food superstores have been looking for tricks to continue playing their role of economic shock absorber. But ” There is no miracle solution “we say at Système U.
After the oil shock of 1973, when “France is experiencing nearly a decade of double-digit inflation [culminant à plus de 13 % en 1980 et 1981] »the boom in large-scale distribution makes it possible to“crush prices” and policies “see Mammoth and its competitors as powerful allies in their fight to curb inflation”as recalled by Jérôme Fourquet, director of the opinion and business strategies department of the FIFG, and the communicator Raphaël Llorca, in “La société du supermarket”, a note for the Jean Jaurès Foundation published at the end of July.
Gripped
But, today, these same supermarkets are caught in a vice in the face of the skid of their own operating costs and the decline in sales volumes that has begun. “Inflation is driving growth in value, while volumes are down 1.7% in 2022”, noted NielsenIQ, on September 19. All in a sector where margins are low. “When a customer does 100 euros of shopping in a supermarket, after paying energy bills, salaries, loans and goods, there is between 1.5 and 2 euros left”we describe at System U. Especially since“You can’t sell at a loss. If prices increase by 40%, I have to keep around 10% margin on food products, according to the Egalim law”adds Mr. Gheeraert. “If the government does not take steps to pay all the additional costs, before even starting to negotiate” with suppliers, “we will have to increase 15% to 1er January “warned Tuesday, October 4, Pascale Cartier, purchasing director of Auchan France, at the LSA congress of commercial strategies.
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