In France, the network of tobacconists supports 80,000 employees and welcomes daily ten million customers. If it already benefits from an investment fund, a diversification strategy is desired by its members. This question was at the center of the information meeting organized on October 2 in Meaux by the National Confederation of Tobacconists (23,000 professionals) and which brought together around fifty participants.
For its president Philippe Coy (who visited certain points of sale around Meaux), this meeting was also an opportunity to draw up a first assessment of the profession’s transformation plan launched in 2018 and to discuss the role of “everyday local utility merchants” that tobacconists aspire to play.
The latter feel, in fact, the need to anticipate societal expectations and consumer trends by reinventing their point of sale, deploying new activities and safeguarding their territorial network.
A difficult financial situation
This is particularly the case in Seine-et-Marne where 392 active tobacconists are facing a difficult financial situation characterized by both a decline in tobacco consumption and an increase in trafficking. “We must try new commercial approaches and above all listen to the needs of our customers“, we could hear in the assembly on October 2. With only 11% of tobacconists transformed, Seine-et-Marne remains, it is true, a department to be supported on the modernization of its points of sale.
In terms of diversification, several avenues (snacking, nicotine, etc.) were mentioned in the continuity of the payment of everyday bills (school canteens, motorway tolls, nurseries, fines, electricity, telephone, etc.) introduced since 2020.
Like everywhere else in France and despite an increasingly invasive parallel market, The Federation of Seine-et-Marnes tobacconists (chaired by Fabrice Chailloux) seeks to build a future by focusing on the modernization map.
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