It was one of the notable moments of the mobilization against the high cost of living: seven bosses of distribution groups, sitting side by side, facing the prefect, facing elected officials and, for the first time, the members of the collective behind the initiative demonstrations against the cost of living on this island in the Antilles. Gathered under the aegis of the local authority of Martinique, Thursday September 26, these interlocutors, numbering around thirty, had a common objective: to find an agreement to lower the prices of food products, which are 40% more expensive in this department than in mainland France, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee).
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An expression of discomfort floated on the faces of the business leaders, unaccustomed to such a collegial exercise of communication in front of the cameras. Especially since, on an island plagued, for two months, by strong tensions caused by the consequences of the inflationary crisis, these large owners of the supermarket networks appear as the accused.
Finally, Patrick Fabre took the plunge, recognizing the problem but refusing to take the blame: “Yes, the prices of food products in Martinique are excessively expensive. The difference compared to the mainland is enormouslamented the CEO of the CréO group. This is not acceptable. » Its logistics and temporary employment company, founded in 1992, opened the first Leader Price supermarket in Fort-de-France two years later, and now has a network of around forty stores spread across seven brands in the Antilles. , in Guyana and Reunion. In Martinique, the group has seventeen hard-discount stores. “Lowering prices is our DNA”argued Mr. Fabre.
Family businesses
“Our markets are narrow: we have significant structural constraints”underlined, a few minutes later, Stéphane Hayot, the general manager of the Bernard Hayot Group (GBH), market leader in distribution in Martinique and in several overseas regions and territories, and whose name is pronounced “Hayotte” in the Antilles. . “Our group was born in Martinique. My father opened his first business in 1960: he had three employees”indicated the 56-year-old manager, adding that the company, which today employs more than 15,000 people in nineteen countries and territories on five continents, was, in its beginnings, only“a small broiler farm”.
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