It is an environment where the fear of reprisals reigns omerta. Also, this owner of a Breton biscuit factory will not reveal to which supermarkets she tries in vain to sell her products a little more expensive, to face a surge in the prices of raw materials which began well before the war in Ukraine.
Marie-Laure Jarry takes us on a tour of the warehouses of Maison Le Goff which, for seventy years, has been producing pastries on an assembly line. The price of all ingredients has drastically increased: 30% increase for rapeseed oil, 21% for flour, 17% for sugar, and 70% for prune filling! Not to mention butter, the price of which has doubled.
The director calculated that the company was now losing money on four receipts. Three centimes per unit, for example, for the Breton salted caramel-butter cake, one of its star products. The production of each cake currently costs him 1.72 euros, while the famous distributor who markets it under his brand gives him 1.69 euros. The latter, he resells it in stores at a price of 2.49 euros, achieving 47% gross margin. Several months ago, Marie-Laure Jarry tried to renegotiate her rates upwards, but she was told to wait for the annual call for tenders, in September 2022, no increase being in progress.
A com campaign that goes wrong
Some time after this response, the owner of the biscuit factory came across a leaflet from the distributor. He highlights his Breton salted caramel-butter cake, now marketed at a price of 2.59 euros … An increase of 10 cents, while the supermarket chain refuses one to the producer. “I do not hide from you that it was the blow of the club”, breathes Marie-Laure Jarry.
While Maison Le Goff says it is losing money on this product, the supermarket group has increased its gross margin from 47% to 53%. While broadcasting in the local press, during the same week, a communication campaign where he affirms his support for French producers, citing among others the biscuit factory Le Goff…
Extract from “Inflation: the low blows of the hypermarkets”, a document to be seen in “Complementary investigation” on September 1, 2022.
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