Finnian O’Luasa, Paris Office, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board
The first grocery store in France to purchase direct from producer and sell to consumers at discount prices was run by Edouard Leclerc in 1949. 6 years later, in 1955, he built a 30m² warehouse in his garden to sell a broader range of low price products. Others followed and this was the beginning of modern retail in France. Less than 10 years later, in June 1963, Carrefour opened their first Hypermarket in France with enough parking space for 450 cars and 2500M² selling surface, the triple of a standard store at the time. It was considered revolutionary. Today Carrefour have over 1300 hypermarkets in over 30 countries. However exponential changes began from 2000 with internet. Auchan opened the first “Drive” where consumers can order on line and have their boot filled at point of pick up. From the 1st Auchan drive in 2000 there are over 3000 Drives in France today with Leclerc leading this channel. Although the hypermarket format was the main driver for spearheading retail, today’s emphasis is on multi-format stores closer to the consumer, in urban areas with smaller selling surfaces but delivered by the same central warehouses.
2018 will be possibly remembered as one of the greatest years of change in French retail with concentration of purchasing powers, huge alliances between online and offline giants and the race for urban markets. Purchasing alliances: Carrefour- Tesco and Auchan-Metro-Casino will add leverage to high volume brand and Private Label negotiations. The Ocado – Monoprix - Amazon alliance announced in early 2018 paved the way for strategic partnerships of expertise combining sophisticated robotic warehouse management with sourcing and urban frontline sales expertise. Delivery within 2 hours in Paris is possible with the Monoprix - Amazon Prime alliance. Carrefour announced an alliance with google and Leclerc had already announced home delivery to Parisian consumers who can be delivered within 24 hours.
From the early days of pioneering Edouard Leclerc buying direct from production to sell at discount to consumer to the latest moves to sell direct from robotised warehouses to consumers, opportunities may arise in the longer term to list more product references with less constraint of shelf space. Although warehouses will also inevitably have space constraints there may be larger product ranges, greater consumer choice and consequently opportunities for more direct brand communication.
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