Inflation at record levels and prices in supermarkets that continue to rise, this is the image that has been imposed on consumers for several months. For Michel Biero, Executive Director of Purchasing and Marketing at Lidl France, it’s simple, there will be no turning back:
Battle between dealers
For him, we can still expect some price cuts, linked to the war between distributors to “recover consumers” of other brands.
“The distributors are going to fight very hard for the prices, which will drop a bit, but it will not be thanks to the manufacturers or the multinationals (…) it will be because the distributors, we are going to assume our margins, as we did for a year”, emphasizes Michel Biero.
The general context of the economy continues to be, according to him, towards maintaining high prices, with wage increases and energy prices still at high levels.
“Prices will not return (to their pre-crisis level): wages have risen, wages will not go down again, there are SMEs or even multinationals that have signed energy contracts that will end in October/November, justifies the head of Lidl. I ask the multinationals for transparency as well as the SMEs, who come to see me saying ‘Mr. Biero, we will not be able to change our prices before October or November because energy will not go down’: I demand transparency and together we can lower prices . “
Slight drop in sales volumes
But have these increases had an impact on store traffic?
“Our sales volume has fallen and this is the case throughout the distribution. On the other hand, our turnover has increased slightly due to inflation, but with a drop in our margins”, acknowledges Michel Biero. A drop in sales volumes “minimal, of the order of 1 to 3%”, he specifies.
Source: BFM TV
