Large distribution: Negotiations with smaller producers ‘went well’, according to Michel-Edouard Leclerc

Good news for mass distribution. Commercial negotiations with suppliers of the agro-industrial complex with a turnover of less than 350 million euros, which ended this Monday evening, “went well,” assured the media representative of industry leader E. Leclerc Michel-Edouard Leclerc. “The negotiations went well, the French industrialists were very correct,” said Michel-Edouard Leclerc on TF1. “I come to you with a fairly positive outlook on these negotiations.”

In November, the government passed legislation that delays the end of the negotiation period between distributors and their suppliers by several weeks, hoping for a quicker impact on store shelves by lowering some wholesale prices, such as oils or wheat. Commercial negotiations take place each year to determine the terms of sale (purchase price, shelf space, promotion calendar, etc.) for a large proportion of the products sold in supermarkets and usually end on 1 March.

“We are going to reduce food inflation to 2-3% per year”

But in exceptional cases, companies must agree the terms of sale for 2024 faster: by Monday evening for suppliers with a turnover of less than €350 million and no later than January 31 for larger suppliers. “There will be pockets of price decline and we will reduce food inflation to 2 or 3% a year,” Michel-Edouard Leclerc said after an average price increase of more than 20% over two years.

Negotiations are traditionally more intense with the biggest players, often multinationals, and Carrefour last week made an example by singling out its supplier PepsiCo, maker of the famous soda, as well as Lay’s chips and Lipton sweet tea, which the company accuses of asking for “unacceptable price increases “

Michel-Edouard Leclerc also responded to discounter Lidl, which this weekend accused it of “comparing the incomparable” in an advert to position itself as the best-selling brand by price: “You have to allow yourself to have as much fun as possible.” “, he reacted, assessing that “Lidl can hardly admit that we have dethroned it from the French catwalk” in terms of price positioning. He said Lidl France president Michel Bierot compared “products from distribution brands with lower prices, although they are not comparable products” in terms of quality.