« Water is the healthiest drink in the world to hydrate. We want people to be able to choose it more easily, working with partners and mobilizing cutting-edge science to help everyone drink more and drink better.“, thus the Danone group highlights its waters. Evian, Volvic, Badoit or Font Vella are all waters now removed from the shelves by the Intermarché supermarket.
Indeed, the president of the group Les Mousquetaires Intermarché Didier Duhaupand accused this Thursday, September 15 Danone take advantage of inflation to improve its margins with price increases « not reasonable« . It was a pub tells you everything.
After sunflower oil or mustard, it is the turn of several major brands of bottled water to become rare in certain supermarkets of the Intermarché group. The raison ? The price asked by the Danone group, owner of several brands of water.
Major water brands are disappearing from Intermarché supermarkets
Indeed, some brands have disappeared from the shelves of the Intermarché supermarket. In a store in Clichy in the Hauts-de-Seine, the famous brands Volvic, Evian or Badoit have been replaced by others. “We prefer to stop waters that are extremely expensive, and put waters which are competitive. And waters that meet the purchasing power of our customers »explained Valéry Nguyen, store manager.
Thus, this Thursday, September 15, the president of the Les Mousquetaires Intermarché group Didier Duhaupand accused of taking advantage of inflation to increase his margins with price increases « unreasonable”.
When he was questioned about the absence on its shelves of bottles of Evian, Badoit or Volvic, and as many brands of the Danone group, the president explained this decision. ” There has been a change of direction at the head of Danone. And their shareholders ask them higher profitabilitythis translates into price increases”estimated Didier Duhaupand, on BFM Business.
In order to flesh out his explanations, the latter recalled that the group Les Mousquetaires also produces spring water bottles. « We too are producers, with water sources”, explained Didier Duhaupand, the Mousquetaires group having the particularity of having an agri-food branch, Agromousquetaires. ” We know the cost breakdown”what ” makes us say that the requests of around 12% (for price increases, editor’s note) are not reasonable” relative to the market.
A showdown
A speech that does not pass at Danone. First, because the negotiations do not have to be public on a television set, in this case BFMBusiness. Then, because the industrialist maintains that his increases are justified. Its production costs are skyrocketing. The costs of the different plastics for the bottles have undergone between 20 and 25% increase. Not to mention the cost of transport, whose prices have soared, not to mention those of energy to run the bottling plant.
For the record, last March, the government decided to reopen negotiations between manufacturers and large retailers. During these negotiations, the purchase prices of a large part of the products sold in supermarkets are decided. The primary objective was to take inflation into account both agricultural raw materials, but also production, transport or packaging costs, in the purchase prices of products by large retailers.
But since March, there has been a constant showdown between the two parties. Thus, few files are closed. The Intermarché supermarket and Danone are part of it!
This Thursday, September 15, the president of the National Association of Food Industries (ANIA), Jean-Philippe André, told AFP that for the moment ” 45% of our members have not completed all of their negotiations with all of their customers.. Thus, the latter asked the government “ to encourage the players to complete these negotiations by the end of the month”. Indeed, from October a new phase for the 2023 tariffs should begin. It is expected to be completed in March 2023.” A stack of negotiations would be really detrimental to everybody “according to Jean-Philippe André.