Can you introduce Sideme?
Founded in 1971, Sideme originally specialized in importing large household appliances, mainly from Eastern Europe. Since 2017, Sideme has been part of the Polish group Amica, which is developing in Western Europe, particularly in Spain and England. Today, the company offers distribution brands as well as its own brands specializing in large appliances (Amica, Fagor and Curtiss), and two cellar brands (Le Chai and Caviss). Thanks to this wide range of quality products, Sideme covers all needs and budgets, and works with all distributors (hypermarket chains, specialized stores, Internet, etc.). We also benefit from efficient technical support, for everything related to the after-sales part, the storage of spare parts for all our sold products, as well as quality control thanks to our technical analysis center. The company has 45 employees.
In 2021, Sideme had a turnover of 82 million euros. The growth of our own brands is considerable, as they now represent a turnover of 40 million euros, just nine years after their launch.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on all global economic activity. However, its market has benefited quite a bit from it.
In fact, during the two years of the health crisis, our activity worked very well! During the first lockdown, most French people were at home, with much more free time than usual. Some have turned to the kitchen, for example, and have acquired a new oven, new equipment, etc. Others wanted to remodel their interiors and invested in new products, much to our delight. Today, the market is seeing a sharp drop with activity down 20% and thus back to 2019 levels.
The main uncertainty now concerns prices: will they increase further in the coming months or will they stagnate? If the increase continues, it will carry over to computers and therefore consumers. Manufacturers may also decide to offer more standardized products, with less sophisticated features, to limit costs and thus the impact on the buyer.
Are the consequences of the health crisis still being felt in your sector?
The global context remains highly uncertain, in particular due to the war in Ukraine. The prices of raw materials are increasing, as are those of certain electronic components. To deal with this, our group decided to move part of the component production to Poland and Europe to be less dependent on Asia. Other relocation projects are being considered.
Our activity is also strongly impacted by the very sharp rise in shipping costs, since we have to use a large number of containers to transport large appliances. The fact that few large appliances are placed in a container disrupts the entire chain due to the costs involved.
This general situation leads to an increase in the sale prices of products, and in particular of distribution brands, which generally constitute the entry prices to consumers. The increase in costs in general affects both the private label and the traditional brands and questions the strategic approach of the private label due to its positioning that proportionally rises faster than the rest of the more structured brands to face chaotic times.
In addition, Sideme must follow and apply the rapidly changing regulatory obligations, both in terms of CSR, as well as repairability and durability of the products offered, the creation of new energy labels or even the recycling of parts. A challenge we face on a daily basis.
Another great challenge, Sideme has just bought the license for the Fagor brand. Can you tell us more?
It is a very beautiful project that we are currently passionate about and that represents a definitive vector of growth for the group. Fagor is a Spanish brand that unfortunately disappeared from the French market six years ago, but still enjoys a wide reputation among some consumers. Synonymous with quality, solid, modern and accessible appliances, Fagor is a brand that Sideme wants to relaunch. The first results are already very positive, since this year we invoiced 15 million euros thanks to the Fagor brand, and our ambition is to make rapid progress. We work the different ranges of products, the relations with the distribution. Fagor is also a sponsor of the Olympique Lyonnais women’s team, an association that means a lot to us and that corresponds to our values of commitment and passion!
This content was produced with SCRIBEO. The BFMBUSINESS editorial team was not involved in the production of this content.
Source: BFM TV
