Michel-Édouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of the E. Leclerc centers was the guest of the 8:30 a.m. france infoFriday March 3, 2023. Anti-inflation basket, fuel, pension reform… He answers questions from Jules de Kiss and Benjamin Sportouch.
Food: Michel-Édouard Leclerc fears “a peak of inflation in April-May-June”
While trade negotiations between manufacturers and distributors ended on Wednesday March 1, Michel-Édouard Leclerc indicates that this cycle “closes at 10%” price increase paid by large retailers to their suppliers. “We started from an average of 15 to 25% increase in demand”, specifies the boss of the signs E. Leclerc. He explains that these increases will be added “15% on food products”referring to food inflation which stood at 14.1% in February 2023 compared to February 2022, according to INSEE.
Michel-Édouard Leclerc affirms that his brand considers that “until July, there will be a competition between distributors to slow down” the impact of these increases on the shelves. He therefore expects “a peak of inflation in April-May-June”, before a decline. He therefore calls for “to reconvene the industrialists” at that time, for “to be able to renegotiate with suppliers when things go down again”. “From the Élysée to the parliamentary groups, we have to stop doing blissful industrialism and mobilize multinational industrialists to sell for less”he says.
Inflation: “These efforts cannot be reduced to a basket”
Faced with food inflation which weighs on the purchasing power of consumers, Michel-Édouard Leclerc believes that “these efforts cannot be reduced to a basket”, such as the anti-inflation basket promised by the government for the month of March. However, he considers that in this context of rising prices, “we can seek money to make promotions on items that have increased too much, such as non-agricultural products, drugstore, perfumery and hygiene products or diapers”.
A new fuel sale operation at cost price
Michel-Édouard Leclerc announces this Friday, March 3 the establishment of a new sales operation “fuel at cost price” until Sunday March 5 at the group’s service stations. The group thus agrees to make, according to the president of the strategic committee of the centers E. Leclerc, to make “5 to 6 cents of effort” on the liter of fuel throughout the duration of the operation.
If he promises to “do it again” and commits “on the best price”Michel-Édouard Leclerc cannot however “not guaranteed today” that he buys the fuel “in good conditions in fifteen days”. “If TotalEnergies guarantees me, as one of its best customers, that it will give me this rebate, I undertake to return it in full to consumers”he adds.
Pension reform: “I do not necessarily recognize myself” in this text
“I don’t necessarily recognize myself” in the pension reform, which arrived this week in the Senate, says Michel-Édouard Leclerc. The president of the strategic committee of the E. Leclerc centers would like first of all that his employees “have free choice”. Faced with the insufficient number, according to him, “active at work”He wishes “make the robots pay when they replace a person so as not to make only the working people bear the price of the retirement of the generation next door”taking up without quoting the proposal of the former socialist candidate for the 2017 presidential election, Benoît Hamon.
He thus quotes “automatic checkouts, robots, computers”. “From the moment when we have an active population which will be smaller and which have made bear the entire financing, I find it stupid”launches Michel-Édouard Leclerc.
—————————-
Find the entire “8:30 am franceinfo” of Friday March 3, 2023: