Unilever has settled its pricing dispute with Belgian retailer Delhaize, which had seen 250 of the consumer goods giant’s products delisted at the beginning of February.
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The Anglo-Dutch group had sought to push through price increases in Belgium, a move that was resisted by Delhaize, which claimed it could result in price hikes to consumers of as much as 30%.
After almost a month of wrangling, the two companies announced this morning (6 March) that they had struck a deal that would see Unilever’s brands returned to the shelves.
“Unilever and Delhaize announce that, to their mutual satisfaction, they have reached an agreement with respect to their collaboration in Belgium,” the groups said in a joint statement.
A spokesperson for Delhaize told just-food that the company believed the deal was “balanced”.
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By GlobalData“We are satisfied we have reached a commercially viable agreement for collaboration in 2009,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson declined to comment on reports that Belgian consumers had reacted negatively to Delhaize’s decision to delist Unilever’s brands.
According to one survey, conducted by research firm Brandhome, 31% of Delhaize customers turned elsewhere to obtain Unilever products.
However, the spokesperson acknowledged, the agreement would now allow the retailer to “move forward”.
“We have today an agreement that will allow us to move forward and continue to grow our businesses,” he said.
Unilever was unavailable for comment at time of press and further details of the agreement were not disclosed.
