France: Auchan expects price war in 2014
Like Georges Plassat (CEO of Carrefour), Mignot blames Michel-Edouard Leclerc for price decrease which led to a drastic fall in Casino's prices (but he believes it has not had an effect on Auchan's activity). But if price deflation persists, Auchan France won't have a choice in the matter.
Customer frequency and purchases dropped in 2013. The result: a 2.5% drop in turnover to €15 billion. Olivier Dauvers (Web grande Conso) reports that their EBITDA dropped 13% in 2013.
According to the head of the company, even if the indications contradict him, Auchan is ''the least expensive store in France when based on the whole trolley''. He says that this year they will go into comparative advertising, locally rather than nationally, and that they will have a lot more promotions. They also aim to have new weekly offers and focus on large national brands.
The market share of hypermarkets in the overall turnover has decreased slightly to 39.4% compared to 41.2% in December 2012 thanks to the boom in click and collect and Simply Market supermarkets that grew 1.9%.
Casino overtakes Auchan internationally:
Auchan can boast a 3.4% growth internationally. However, with a €48.1 billion turnover, it's position as the second French distributor is handed over to Casino (€48.8 billion). Casino's success is thanks to a range of developments (integrating Brasil and Monoprix), whilst Auchan's focus is mainly on hyper and supermarkets. However this is what allows Auchan to remain the number one French retailer in China and third in Russia. Their presence in Poland, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine and Romania is also on the rise since taking over the Real stores in Eastern Europe (agreement signed in 2012).