The boss of Mousquetaires/Intermarché, Thierry Cotillard, affirmed Thursday on Franceinfo that “industrialists that I would almost describe as irresponsible came with price increases” considered significant at the start of commercial negotiations determining the prices of part of the products on shelves for the year. He also announced the recruitment of “6 to 7,000 people” in 2025, 80% of whom are on permanent contracts.
Every year between the beginning of December and March 1, large retailers negotiate with their suppliers in the agri-food industry the conditions (purchase price, shelf space, promotional calendar, etc.) under which they will purchase a large part of the foodstuffs marketed in its rays for the rest of the year.
For 2025 and after a period of sharp rise in the prices of food products, “we were aiming for deflation” in the prices granted by manufacturers to supermarkets, declared Thursday the boss of the 3rd distributor in France behind E.Leclerc and Carrefour.
“It is not completely won,” he said, referring to “very large brands which have come with price increases of around 6 to 7 or even 8%, it is enormous and completely uncorrelated of economic reality.
This is data from before negotiations, which does not presume the price ultimately charged by the distributors on the shelves. Especially since it is the merchant who decides the selling price to consumers.
-“Lower industrial costs”
Thierry Cotillard argues that the “industrial” cost of manufacturing foodstuffs (gas, boxes or transport) is lower than the previous year, as is the price of most agricultural raw materials, sugar, oil or durum wheat. However, some have increased significantly, such as butter or cocoa.
“Let national brands assume that their hope (…) is to feed the dividend for shareholders,” Thierry Cotillard further accused. On the other hand, according to him, the demands of the smallest suppliers are “much more reasonable”, with on average requests for an increase of 2.8% compared to 6.4% for large suppliers.
Less greedy SMEs
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) enjoy a much less favorable balance of power with supermarkets, the volumes sold by the mass distribution giants being proportionally much more important for their activity.
On Wednesday evening, the media representative of the leader in large-scale food distribution Michel-Édouard Leclerc also castigated on BFMTV “brands that have really messed up” with price increases. “Today this speculative inflation has stopped but we are going to look for reductions” in the annual negotiations.
