Following the takeovers of various supermarkets, prices could fall in many brands. Here are the ones that are affected.
700 stores have already changed hands or will soon do so. Intermarché, Auchan and Carrefour will buy supermarkets from other brands, including Casino in particular. The Schiever Group's stores will also join System U. While this may seem purely economic at first, consumers could actually see a direct impact during their shopping.
In a post published on LinkedIn, Emily Mayer, business insights director at Circana France, a global market research company, highlights that these buyouts or rallies will lead to a notable change in prices. These should be repositioned according to the new owner. A process which could be to the customer's advantage, since the acquired brands opted for prices that were on average higher than their buyers. According to the specialist, these transfers will therefore result “in lower prices”. The other side of the coin for brands: “a loss of turnover estimated by Circana at -0.4% over one year for consumer products”.
400 Casino stores are affected: they will be bought by Intermarché, Auchan and Carrefour. Casino opted on average for prices 20% more expensive than its competitors. 175 Cora and Match will also come under the ownership of Carrefour. These are the Central-East and South-East regions where buyouts are the most numerous. This is therefore good news for French consumers in these regions who will see prices drop in many surrounding supermarkets.
Investor groups will thus expand their sales network. They can afford it since their turnover was up in 2023. According to Circana, with inflation set at 13% over the year, Carrefour saw its turnover increase by 10% (94, 1 billion euros), just like Intermarché reaching 39 billion euros and Auchan also progressed, but more slowly, with 4%, giving it a turnover of 32.3 billion euros.
These brands are also among the most economical supermarkets, according to a ranking established by Statista based on monitoring carried out by Le Parisien and data from UFC-Que Choisir in January 2024. The ranking places Intermarché in second position with a average basket of 77.78 euros. The brand which will buy Casino stores is two places ahead of Carrefour (average basket of 82.15 euros) and three places of Auchan (average basket of 82.24 euros). E.Leclerc comes first (average basket of 77.15 euros) and Super U third (average basket of 78.56 euros).
