With a price index below 100, Auchan Drive is close to the price positioning of Intermarché or Super U. But unsurprisingly, E.Leclerc remains the undisputed leader in back-of-shelf prices for the drive channel in April 2024 despite the slight increase in its index (+0.3 points vs March 2024), to 91.7.
This graphic is interactive, hover your cursor over one of the points to see the sign in question. Click here to download the chart (excluding Monoprix and Bi1).
A slight increase in the average index
As a reminder, this inter-brand price index is based on a comparison basket of all national brand products present simultaneously in at least five drive-thru distributors with at least 10% of stores holding them (DN > 10%). The idea is not to follow the evolution of prices in each of the brands, but to analyze their price positioning on “back of the shelf” products. As a result, promotions are excluded from the calculation, as are out-of-stock items. The index is calculated every day and averaged weekly in order to produce an accurate restitution and have a more qualitative vision of the price positioning of the players analyzed.
In April 2024, the average price index stood at 101.2 (i.e. +0.1 point vs March 2024). The range between the most expensive brand (Monoprix) and the least expensive (E.Leclerc) is 25.5. In addition, the differences between the different blocks are narrowing, in particular due to the passage of Auchan Drive below the index 100. E.Leclerc, the cheapest brand, forms a block on its own:
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Hyper U, Colruyt, Intermarché Hyper et Super, Super U and now, to a certain extent, Auchan Drive have a price positioning below the market average.
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Conversely, the Cora, Carrefour Hyper, Carrefour Market, Match and Auchan Supermarché brands are more expensive than average. To this list, we must also add the Casino brands (Casino Hyper Frais and Casino supermarket) as well as Chronodrive.
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Finally, Bi1 and Monoprix have prices 10% higher than the rest of the market.
Hyper U remains E.Leclerc’s first challenger
The first block is composed only of E.Leclerc. “On average 8.3% cheaper than the competition, E.Leclerc demonstrates a big lead over its leading competitor – Hyper U – with an index gap of 3.3 points“, notes Quentin Bon, marketing research manager at Wiser. The distributor thus remains the leader, despite an increase of +0.3 points compared to March.
The second block, the challengers, includes Hyper U, Intermarché Hyper et Super, Colruyt Collect&Go, Super U and Auchan Drive. The integration of the Mulliez galaxy brand increases the average index (97 vs. 96.1 in March) and the extent (4.9 vs. 2.8 last month) of this block. At the same time, the price index of Hyper U, Super U, Intermarché Hyper and Super also increased. Only Colruyt (Collect&go) is holding steady, at 96.2.
The third block, the followers, is made up of Carrefour, Cora, Casino Hyper Frais, Chronodrive, Auchan, Carrefour market and Supermarché Casino. In this block, Carrefour hyper becomes the most competitive brand with an index of 100.5 (-0.1 point vs March 2024). It is the only one to see its price index fall. If Auchan Drive has revised its price positioning, Auchan supermarket is dangerously close to the price positioning of Bi1… And this even if its price index is down slightly (-0.1 vs March 2024).
The fourth block brings together ‘non-competition’ brands with high price positioning, namely Monoprix and Bi1. Although still above the market, Bi1 saw its price index drop by one point between April and March 2024. This is the biggest drop of the month while the price index of most of the others brands, apart from Auchan, Colruyt (CollectAndGo) and Carrefour Hyper, is increasing. For its part, Monoprix has revised its price positioning upwards and is getting closer and closer to the 120 index. The brand’s price index has also gained 4.6 points between April 2023 and April 2024 while that of Bi1 fell by 3.5 points.
