2023-09-04 03:32:44
Whose fault is it ? In the desired discussions between distributors and manufacturers to lower prices, the majority of the latter have so far “not played the game”, considers the CEO of Carrefour Alexandre Bompard, who thinks that “the legislative framework” should compel to negotiate.
“I have no pleasure in this little game which would consist in putting the responsibility on the industrialists but it is the reality, they did not play the game of negotiation”, declared on BFMTV the CEO of Carrefour and new president of the Professional Federation of Supermarkets (FCD). “Of the 75 (major manufacturers concerned by the anticipated negotiations planned by the government for 2024), I have 50 who do not take me on the phone, ”he assured.
The Minister of Economy Bruno the Mayor had declared a little earlier on the same channel that “there will be a text of law, probably during the month of October, to advance these trade negotiations which were to end in March 2024 and which will end at the end of the year 2023, give or take a week or two”.
“In a legislative framework, we will have to face each other and normally when we are face to face, we manage to negotiate”, according to Alexandre Bompard. “If we negotiate between October 1 and December 31, from January we should see the level of inflation drop significantly,” he said.
A price lock on 5,000 products
The government announced this week that it had secured a price drop or price freeze on 5,000 products on the shelves. Carrefour will show a drop in 1,100 products, by “10% on average” and “immediately”, including “a majority of food products”, according to its president. And “we will do it until December 31”.
On the frequency of trade negotiations, the CEO of Carrefour judged that “the only country where things are going so badly, where the relationship with manufacturers is so degraded, is France and it is the only country where negotiations are annual. Also questioned on this subject, the president and CEO of System U, Dominique Schelcher, estimated on Friday that we had “lost six months”. ” The care (inflation) was very unbalanced: it is heavy for the French, we have made efforts, but the support from the industrialists has been insufficient compared to the results they are achieving”, he had judged on BFMTV.
Alexandre Bompard also said he was “largely convinced” that in the first quarter of 2024 “we will be well below 10%” food inflation (which was 11.1% in August, against 12.7% in July ). “I hope we will be closer to 5% and I hope a little below, but we will not be at zero. The days of zero food inflation are behind us,” he said.
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