It is an opening that makes a lot of noise in this period of high food inflation. The new hard discount brand Toujust welcomed several hundred customers for the opening of its first store yesterday in Alès in the Gard. As the threat of a “Red Mars” looms over French supermarket shelves, the distributor promises products 5-10% cheaper than the competition. A first day of operation above expectations was enough for Toujust with a turnover of 48,000 euros, 20% more than expected.
Among the products that have devastated, the oil sold at an unbeatable price of 1.39 euros per liter is at the top. “We have an offer of sunflower oil that has been a real success and I think we had planned three pallets but we should have taken two trucks,” the founder of the brand Fabrice Gerber said last night on BFMTV who promises other arrivals this Thursday but how do you know? does Toujust manage to charge such low prices in a context of widespread price increases?
Sanction commercial cooperation contracts
In mass distribution for 25 years, Fabrice Gerber deplores the “fixed codes” that govern business relationships between suppliers and distributors. Toujust’s model aims to simplify them by eliminating intermediaries. Gone is the traditional commercial cooperation contract, to give way to the partners’ agreement that allows suppliers to participate in the capital of Toujust and receive 25% of the profits at the end of each year. “All our suppliers are associated with our model, they have a real motivation to have the lowest prices since it is their result,” the founder estimated this morning on BFMTV.
Specifically, Toujust pounces on products not sold in supermarkets due to stock problems and buys them back at unbeatable prices. “We work on opportunities, on a day-to-day basis, on day-to-day operations and on the products that are put on the market and that come from a bad deal with a large group,” Fabrice Gerber details. angry with a large group, he will reduce his order and inevitably this large industrialist will find himself with surpluses on his hands and will have to resell them.
Target of 40 stores in France this year
However, not all suppliers like the model that Toujust defends: “Today we have 50% of companies that have refused to deliver to us. They are usually SMEs with a turnover of more than 50 million euros and it is not a question of price. It’s more the fear of possible retaliation, knowing that we were in the middle of negotiating deals, and they said “technically, we can’t partner in the equity of a brand if we lose one of our customers.”
The new French hard discount brand does not intend to stop there and has set itself the goal of opening 40 stores in France in 2023 and surpassing the threshold of 300 supermarkets in 2026.
Source: BFM TV
