What is the future of European distribution? What role will purchasing groups play? How is consumer behavior changing in the digital age, and what challenges will European distributors face?
The leaders of Coopernic, the European alliance of which Delhaize, Leclerc, Rewe and Coop Italy are now part of, discussed these matters in a meeting that was held at Expo. In a comprehensive dialogue, which touched the current issues on the role of retail in an evolving scenario, Marco Pedroni president of Coop Italy, Frans Muller, President and CEO of Delhaize and Michel Edouard Leclerc, President of Mouvement E. Leclerc expressed their common view about the relationship with the consumer and the need to collaborate to achieve greater efficiency.
“The household attitude towards purchasing has changed – said Pedroni – but especially durable goods have benefitted from the enhanced confidence, while consumer goods only in the last three months have shown a slight sign of recovery in volume and growth in terms of value as a result of inflationary pressure after years of falling prices.”
For the multinational group Delhaize, the consumption crisis which is still in progress, was seen as a great opportunity to re-launch a new model of development. “As market leader – said Muller – the crisis does not have to worry us, but it should encourage us to be more innovative and transparent, because thanks to digital technologies the consumer is more and more experienced and wants to know how we operate.”
Even the competition of the giants of e-commerce is seen as a stimulus by members of Coopernic: “All over the world people are talking about the phenomenon of Amazon – said Leclerc – but we, a traditional operator, with our service drive €2.4 billion, a figure higher than the turnover of Amazon in France.”
The alliance behind Coopernic has the aim to give companies more tools to deal with competition: “The total turnover of the four members amounted to €130 billion – said Pedroni – the panel colaborates with 100 – 130 suppliers and on a voluntary basis works with private label, therefore, opening up new opportunities for Italian companies. In 2015 we held 15 – 20 tenders for the supply of products to private label and this number is expected to multiply three or four times in 2016.”