The next few weeks will be marked by new price increases in the aisles of the Metro chain’s grocery stores, confirms the boss of the company, Eric La Flèche.
With the price freeze period expiring in early February, Metro has already received “thousands” of price increase requests from its suppliers, it said during the annual meeting of shareholders on Tuesday.
The year 2022 was unprecedented in this regard, with more than 27,000 requests for increases of more than 10% on average, three times more than normal.
“Discussions are continuing. We negotiate hard. There are suppliers who insist and who will obtain price increases if we want to continue to have access to the goods,” said Mr. La Flèche.
These are requests for increases that affect dry foods (as opposed to fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables, meat and fish), which account for “50% to 60% of food sales”.
Metro insists that it absorbs some of these increases, as reflected in the decline in its gross margin in the 1st quarter, which fell from 19.9% to 19.6%, explains Eric La Flèche.
This includes all of its activities, including the grocery store (Metro, Super C, Food Basics), pharmacy (Jean Coutu, Brunet) and bakery (Première Moisson).
For the first three months of its financial year, which ended on December 19, Metro posted profits up 11% to $231.1 million.
The grocery basket experienced a 10% inflation, which means that a basket worth $100 went to $110. This is the second quarter in a row that this has happened.
“It’s not good news, this 10%. Neither for consumers nor for anyone in the supply chain. It puts a lot of pressure on the system and it’s clearly much more difficult to manage, ”said Eric La Flèche.
