Carrefour extends the veto to PepsiCo in Spain and other European countries

2024-01-06 10:08:55

Carrefour’s veto in France of distribution of PepsiCo products at its facilities in retaliation for “excessive price increases” has been extended to Spain, Italy and Belgium, according to company sources consulted. by the Efe agency. The French distributor will stop offering the production of the American giant until they run out of the current stocks they have and when they run out they will display an explanatory poster for customers. The measure will affect brands such as Pepsi, 7up, Lipton, Lay’s, Bénénuts, Doitos and Alvalle. The American company tells assets that it has been “negotiating with the Gallic company for many months” and that it will continue to do so in “good faith” to guarantee the availability of its offer.

These negotiations must end between January 15 and 31, instead of March 1, as was usually the case due to a modification introduced by the French Government to try to reflect more quickly the price drops of some raw materials. PepsiCo has increased its forecasts three times during the year 2023.

Carrefour’s move is unprecedented in Spain and, for now, other companies in the sector consulted by assets, such as Dia and Mercadona, refuse to comment on this commercial strategy of their competition. Sources from the Eroski supermarket chain point out that they have no plans to take similar measures. “It’s a decision that rests exclusively with them,” Mercadona sources indicate. Anged, the employer of the large distribution companies, also claims that they do not come to assess the commercial strategy followed by each brand. “Some choose to have more suppliers and others less. It’s each group’s decision”, as they explain.

So far, as acknowledged by Dominique Schelcher, the head of Système U, another of France’s large distribution chains, agreements have been closed with few manufacturers and with some such as Danone, discussions have not even begun, according to Efe .

6% and 10% increases

In fact, Système U is also considering betting on a boycott like that of Carrefour, an idea that is also “tempting” the Leclerc chain (which has a dozen hypermarkets in Spain). Michel-Edouard Leclerc explained last Thursday to the France Info station that industrialists are demanding price increases of between 6% and 10%, and in some cases up to 20% when his company seeks “deflation “.

Leclerc admitted that suspending sales of a product is a policy with which a distribution chain does not win because if on the one hand “consumers do not want to pay a lot, if they do not have their product, they leave they go to the competition.” In France, inflation ended 2023 at 3.7%, two tenths more than in November. Food prices, while far from the 16% peak in the spring, remain well above these figures, up 7.1% year-on-year to end the year.