Michel Edouard Leclerc, head of French independent retailer Leclerc, has labeled the country’s trade body a “club for hypermarkets”.
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The outspoken Leclerc was commenting after his company and local peer Intermarché quit as associate members of the Fédération des entreprises du Commerce et de la Distribution (FCD).
“It [the FCD] is a club for hypermarkets, appreciated by ministers, the administration and industrial federations because it allows them to talk to a single interlocutor,” Leclerc said.
He argued that the FCD remains weighted exclusively in favour of Carrefour, never taking specialist or franchised retailers – such as his members – into account.
However, Leclerc refuted any suggestion of a crisis generated from the ongoing political upheaval over relations between suppliers and retailers in France.
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By GlobalDataYesterday (25 March), Intermarché said there is “divergence on strategic orientations” among FCD members over the French government’s planned reforms to the retail sector.
“The particularities of our network of independent distributors operating convenience-type supermarkets have not been taken into account sufficiently,” Intermarché said.
