Stephanie Lahad, Market Specialist France & Belgium.
While the French based international retailers Carrefour, Auchan and Casino are struggling in their home market, as mentioned in a previous Food Alert, the “independent” retailers (namely Leclerc, Intermarché and Système U) are showing no sign of decrease in market share. The difference between these and the aforementioned is that each store is owned independently, allowing store owners to adapt the offer to the consumer needs in terms of local offer and services.
In P6 2019, Kantar Worldpanel highlighted that Leclerc grew by 0.3% to 21.7% market share while Intermarché’s market share increased by 0.1% to 15% and Système U’s by 0.3% to 10.8%.
Another growing retailer in France is the German discounter Lidl. The premiumisation of their offer and the renovation of their stores as well as of 50% of their logistic platforms to improve their offer and enable the opening of new stores in the market have made the retailer more appealing to French consumers. Lidl is showing the strongest growth in P6 2019 (+0.5% which represents a 9% increase in consumer spending) according to Kantar Worldpanel. Lidl also created new partnerships with extremely popular events in France such as the Tour de France or Salon de l’Agriculture, highlighting the French provenance of some of their products (100% of the milk they sell is French) and they have listed strategic manufacturer brands to recruit new clients (460,000 in one month).
Finally the fresh specialist retailers are also growing through the established players and the launch of new chains. The leader in this category is Grand Frais, who was also voted favorite French retailer in 2018. They are expanding into a smaller store format to target urban consumers in city centers, hoping to have a total of 290 stores by 2020. Smaller chains such as Provenc’Halles (60 stores) and L’Heure du Marché (9 stores) are also developing strongly. Their competitive advantage is based on shopping experience, freshness and quality of produce as well as a larger number of staff to serve and advise clients, reflecting the Engaging Experience consumer trend highlighted in Bord Bia’s Consumer Lifestyle Trends.
This intense and varied competition makes it even tougher for the centralised retailers such as Casino, Carrefour and Auchan, who are trying to resist through the digital revolution. However, it is very probable that we will see further consolidation and alliances in the market in the next coming years.
For more information on the French retail market, please contact stephanie.lahad@bordbia.ie
References
OC&C (October 2018): Classement des enseignes fromhttps://www.occstrategy.com/fr/%C3%A0-propos-d-occ/actualit%C3%A9s-et-m%C3%A9dias/article/id/1879/2018/10/le-cabinet-de-conseil-en-strat%C3%A9gie-occ-publie-son-classement-des-enseignes
LSA Magazine (04/07/2019 issue): Retailers Marketshare from Kantar Worldpanel from https://www.lsa-conso.fr/parts-de-marche-completes-de-mai-juin-carrefour-auchan-et-casino-toujours-en-difficulte,323981
Kantar Wordlpanel, Tendances Consommation et Enseignes P06 2019 from https://www.kantarworldpanel.com/fr/A-la-une/FlashP062019