Stephanie Lahad, Bord Bia Paris

Monoprix, which is 50% owned by the Casino group and 50% by Galeries Lafayette is expanding their existing format of self-service restaurants available in Daily Monop convenience stores. The current range at Daily Monop is comprised of 200 chilled products including ready-meals, sandwiches, salads, soups and a variety of snacking products such as crisps, cereal bars and confectionery, all of which are available to eat-in or take-out.

The range is available in 42 Daily Monop convenience stores. There are also Daily Monop “corners” in 150 of Monoprix’s 284 supermarkets. This number is expected to increase by 50 as new convenience “corners” are introduced into more supermarkets in the next 3 years. The group announced on the 30th of October that they will open 12 new Daily Monops in the coming year and a further 20 to 25 by 2011. Monoprix has also signed an agreement with Eliance to extend the franchise to train stations, airports and motorway service areas.

This low-cost eat-in concept which yields high margins was launched two years ago by Monoprix and following on from the success of the strategy, there are now opportunities for growth for new and existing suppliers to the retailer. Most Irish companies currently supplying Monoprix do so through Fresh Food Village and Naive distributors.