Home to three of the largest global retailers, market leading cooperatives and an EDLP retailer that attracts on-going attention, the French retail market remains one of the most innovative in Europe.
Jon Wright, Head of Retail Insight at IGD explores the trends shaping France’s grocery retail market.
French retailers are introducing new store formats and designs, while remaining at the forefront of developing online and fulfilment offers, and organic ranges are becoming more of a focus. Given these developments, France is a country that requires further investigation, today and on an on-going basis.
Format evolution continues apace
Despite many retailers expected to announce large scale changes to their hypermarkets in the short term, the same companies are also driving innovation in other formats as well. Hypermarkets remain a core format for most retailers in France. Investment is still happening in stores, but this lighter touch spending is aimed at evolution, rather than the revolution. Auchan and Carrefour are set to launch new designs for their largest stores in 2018 and 2019, while Casino is focusing on adding Cdiscount corners to Géant, rather than overhauling the design of stores.
Despite this, retailers are still launching new and interesting designs and concepts as they look to win. Intermarché has announced it will open a new store format in September 2018 tailored to the needs of elderly shoppers. The concept, called Bien Chez Moi, will measure about 200 sq. m and bring together products and services for its older shoppers.
Elsewhere, Casino-owned discount chain Leader Price has launched its new concept, dubbed ‘Next’, with trial stores enjoying an increase in turnover of up to 20%. The updated design, which will be rolled out to 120 stores in France by the end of 2018, has an upmarket look and feel and incorporates dedicated areas for bakery, wine and pre-prepared meals. The ranges have also been expanded with more organic, local and fresh products. Casino’s Franprix banner has also launched two stores called ‘le drugstore Parisien’ in conjunction with L’Oréal. The product range is split across three areas – makeup and beauty, hygiene and personal care and healthy food and over the counter pharmaceutical products.
You can find the full article on this topic in the September-October print issue of Frozen Food Europe.
