Picard has been in existence for half a century. A brand favored by the French, with loyal customers and no less than 10 million members. Today, general manager Cécile Guillou also announces a partnership with UberEats. The announced objective is to give 70% of French people the possibility of being delivered in less than 10 minutes.
franceinfo : Should this strategy allow you to gain more customers? Are you particularly targeting those who do not have a nearby store?
Cécile Guillou: Yes, Picard continues to gain customers. Another million more customers last year, many of them young people, more than a quarter of them young people. And the objective is to offer a new digital offer, with more than 400 Picard products available in less than ten minutes, for 70% of French people. This complements the other systems of home delivery and “click and collect”.
The first Picard store was in 1974, rue de Rome in Paris. Today, you have 1,100 stores throughout France. Isn’t the recipe for success above all proximity?
Quite.
“Picard is a real local brand.”
Cécile Guillouat franceinfo
This year we were elected favorite brand of the French. It’s a superb recognition from customers, of the magnificent work that is done by employees every day and it is recognition of in-depth work, which illustrates the trust of customers, of which we are extremely proud.
What is the best-selling product today at Picard?
These are the extra-fine green beans. At Picard, we sell half raw products and half more elaborate products. This allows us to meet all budgets, all desires and all types of customers.
Food inflation reached record highs last year and is stabilizing around 2-3% according to the latest figures from INSEE. Would you say that inflation is behind us?
Yes, the big wave of inflation has passed. But the average reflects quite diverse variations. For example, salmon is decreasing, which allows us to reduce one of customers’ favorite products. Conversely, you have other materials such as cocoa, peas or spinach which, simply for harvest reasons, are in inflation. So here we will try to adapt as best as possible to have as little impact as possible on prices for our customers.
Knowing that Easter is over, shouldn’t cocoa impact you?
We are already preparing for Christmas. We’re doing our best to stabilize things and have a fabulous Christmas. We still have 150 exclusive recipes arriving for this Christmas at Picard.
“The objective is to cover daily life for all customers, at all budgets, but also to support them in much more festive moments.”
Cécile Guillouat franceinfo
How do you explain the success of Picard, 50 years later?
It is based on a very simple idea, it is the basis of the freezing process, which is in fact simply a process of preserving products, to keep them in the best possible condition with zero waste throughout the chain. Neither in transport, nor in the store, to your home, in your freezer.
In fact, it is freezing and not processing.
Frozen food is above all a preservation process, which preserves nutrients and nutritional values. Because we know that when a product has been frozen two or three hours after being picked or fished, it retains most of its nutritional value for a very long time, until your freezer.
For your 50th anniversary, you are offering a partnership with chef Thierry Marx, to show that frozen food is not bad quality?
It is above all to show that frozen food can be integrated into everyday recipes in a very simple way. He will cook with frozen Picard products, simple, accessible, extremely tasty recipes. And show students, for example, how we can organize ourselves and return to the kitchen, since that is also one of the challenges.
So it is not incompatible with homemade and with the Nutri-score.
I told you, 50% of the products are raw. It therefore caters to a clientele who cooks, but also to people who don’t cook, often because they don’t have the time.
For young people, there is a “chicken and pasta” tray, for less than 3 euros, which is a hit.
Very accessible, these are balanced dishes, extremely well thought out, with noble materials.
“We have also marked the origin of the products on all of our packaging, and have done so for a long time.”
Cécile Guillouat franceinfo
It is a Picard commitment to provide the best quality at the best price for everyone.
And it works. One billion turnover last year, growth of 5%. What’s next ? Even more stores in France or is Picard a model that is exported beyond our borders?
We continue to open a lot of stores. Another 40 stores last year, another 40 stores next year. The objective is to be five minutes from our customers, to get closer to them, Picard is above all a local brand. Without forgetting product innovation, 250 new products each year are offered to our customers.
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