A crazy bet? A utopia ? “I would rather say: a bold project”, corrects Fabrice Gerber, 47 years old and twenty-three years of career in the large distribution, by evoking the future chain of supermarkets Toujust!, which he is about to create ex nihilo in an already crowded sector. The doors of its first store in yellow and blue colors open on 1er March, in Alès, in the Gard. With a promise: prizes “at least 5% cheaper than at Lidl or Aldi”, removing intermediaries. It won’t be “neither a hard-discounter nor a low-cost store”but “a white label food supermarket”claims the founder who cut his teeth at Leclerc, Aldi and Super U.
A model perfectly adapted to the current crisis of purchasing power, according to him, because “we will have explosive inflation in 2023, a real earthquake”. “Consumers need to prepare for this. Customers are going to have to sacrifice the brands they’ve become so used to buying.”for the benefit of products that will correspond more to their needs than to their pleasure.
Alès will therefore be a first test for anyone who aims to open between forty and fifty stores by the end of the year – Lens (Pas-de-Calais), Montauban, Saint-Quentin (Aisne), Cambrai (Nord )… – and about fifty, every year, in rural communities of nearly 10,000 inhabitants. Mr. Gerber assures that his model finds its “balance with twenty stores”.
“Reprisals”
Above all, it will be a test for a completely innovative concept: approximately 80% of the products on the shelves of this supermarket chain will come from suppliers who will also be shareholders. Mainly SMEs, such as Tradition et Terroir du Sud-Ouest from Bordeaux (charcuterie and meat products), Puigrenier (butcher) or Les Cafés Sati, and their own brands, often unknown to the general public.
About a hundred small industrialists are believed to be on board for the moment, including “half have been contacted by competitors to ask them to withdraw their shareholding from us under penalty of reprisals. When we don’t even exist. You realize ! »says the boss, from a family of butchers in Soufflenheim (Bas-Rhin).
A few national brands will complete the assortment. Fabrice Gerber hopes to buy them at the “more advantageous” price intended for communities and catering, thanks to a specific subsidiary for sale to professionals. On paper: a more balanced model for commercial relations between manufacturers and distributors.
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