Already present in the north and east of the country, Supeco opened its very first store in Ile-de-France on Wednesday. The discount supermarket brand created in 2019 by Carrefour is now established in 19 French towns. And plans to launch three to four additional stores in Ile-de-France by the end of 2021.
She intends to steal the show from Lidl and Aldi, the kings of mass distribution at low prices. But Supeco will not be the only one to fight: Mere, a brand from Siberia, should land in France next October and in particular in Moselle.
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According to L’Express, the Svetofor network to which Mere belongs wants to open three stores in eastern France: one in Thionville (Moselle), the other in Sainte-Marguerite (Vosges), and the last in Pont-Sainte-Marie ( Dawn). Founded in 2009, it has more than 2,000 stores around the world, notably in Russia, China, Germany, Spain, England, and soon in Belgium.
A growth market
Other discount brands from elsewhere have already entered the French market. This is the case with Action, which, in less than ten years, has established itself in hundreds of municipalities. The Dutch chain of stores is betting on its 1,500 products sold for less than one euro, among the 6,000 references it offers. The Danish brand Normal, which arrived in France a year after Action, has around forty points of sale.
Without forgetting the French Leader Price (partly owned by Casino) and Netto (Intermarché). Suffice to say that the offer of discount supermarkets is bloated. However, the sector is doing well, as confirmed in Parisian Louise Machenaud, Project Director for Supeco: “The discount market is booming and Carrefour, which had not positioned itself, wanted to be part of it.”
According to the IRI company, which specializes in market research, the turnover of historical hard discounters (Lidl and Aldi) increased by 9% last year, despite the pandemic. According to an OpinionWay survey, the German company Lidl has even become this year the third “favorite” store of the French, behind Leclerc and Carrefour.
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A plethora of offers
How will Supeco and Mere succeed in standing out from the behemoths Lidl and Aldi, which have been present in France for twenty years already? If the two brands use the codes of hard discount (lower prices, reduced staff, limited number of references), they both have different strengths.
Mere is more positioned on the hard discount: the products offered are basic and the prices as low as possible (10 to 20% lower than those of Aldi and Lidl). To save money, the group rents its sites and skips the shelves. To help themselves, their customers draw directly from the pallets.
For its part, Supeco initially offers more references than Lidl (3,500 against 2,000) and half of the products sold are major brands. “It is Carrefour’s anti-LIDL weapon”, analysis for The Parisian Olivier Dauvers, specialist in mass distribution. For those who love good business, the brand has set up an area called “Yapu Yapu”. But its strategy also consists in making the “races a pleasant moment”, supports Louise Machenaud in the columns of our colleagues.
Du hard discount au soft discount
The discount supermarket chain thus offers a traditional butcher’s shop, bulk sales, and products labeled AB (organic farming). “In listening to our customers, their first motivation is the price, followed by the direct link with the teams”, explains to L’Express Eric Bouin, Managing Director of Supeco France.
Supeco is therefore more in the line of brands adept at soft discount, a concept already developed by Lidl and Aldi. The discount offer of supermarkets has indeed evolved considerably over the last twenty years. The austere buildings with Spartan decor have been renovated and the stalls now feature fresh, organic, and gluten-free products. A move upmarket which has so far paid off.
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