(AFP / LOIC VENANCE)
The agri-food and hygiene products giant Unilever (Knorr, Amora, Ax and Carte d’Or brands) has summoned Intermarché for summary proceedings for a poster campaign deemed denigrating, while the two players are in the middle of commercial negotiations , AFP learned on Friday from the distributor.
“We have received a surprising subpoena from Unilever,” reacted the third French food distributor to AFP, confirming information from L’Informé. Intermarché, noting that the approach “is part, from a timetable point of view, in the home stretch of commercial negotiations”, says it can “imagine that this is a very clumsy attempt at destabilization”.
Unilever is contesting a communication campaign by Mousquetaires/Intermarché, which had hijacked advertising slogans associated with some of the brands in its portfolio to criticize excessively high price requests, or cases of “reduflation” or “shrinkflation”, when the quantities of products are reduced for an unchanged or even higher price.
“Knorr, I loved”, or the Carte d’Or ice creams which “don’t go with the back of the spoon”: the company listed on the London Stock Exchange has brought in court commissioners in recent days to “order several Intermarché stores to stop these displays deemed to be denigrating”, reported sector specialist Olivier Dauvers earlier Thursday on his site “Le Web Grande Conso”.
The lawyer for the group also known for Dove soaps, Ax deodorants, Knorr soups and Magnum ice creams did not wish to comment to AFP.
The exchange of arms occurs while supermarkets are conducting negotiations with their agro-industrial suppliers on the conditions of sale (purchase price, shelf space, promotional calendar, etc.) of a large part of the products sold in large surfaces.
Coincidentally, the summary hearing was set by the Commercial Court for January 31, according to Intermarché, that is to say the last day of these commercial negotiations.
“We have been denouncing the practice of +shrinkflation+ for several weeks now, well before the start of the current negotiations,” commented Intermarché, which said it hopes “that this type of campaign will allow the manufacturers concerned to demonstrate more transparency and of moderation.
A few months ago, Intermarché criticized the manufacturer of Petit Marseillais soap for being “fad”, or frozen products Findus for throwing “a cold shoulder” with price requests deemed unreasonable.
For its part, Carrefour, the second largest food distributor behind E.Leclerc, also recently denounced the pricing policy of its supplier PepsiCo by removing from its shelves its products, Lay’s or Doritos chips, Quaker cereals, Pepsi or 7Up sodas, Lipton sweet tea and declaring not display way: “we no longer sell this brand due to unacceptable price increases”.
“Discussions with Carrefour have been taking place for many months and we will continue to do so in good faith to ensure that our products are available,” responded a PepsiCo spokesperson.