2023-06-01 03:00:08
Located not far from the Ministry of Defence, the Bio c’ Bon store on rue Balard, in 15e arrondissement of Paris, may be living its last moments… Maybe only. For lack of sufficient turnover, the Carrefour group, owner of this specialized brand, had decided to transform it into a Carrefour City supermarket. The reins were to be entrusted to a franchisee, despite the presence of another Carrefour in the same street, barely forty numbers further. The closure had been announced to the employees for Sunday, June 4, despite the opposition of the inhabitants of the district at the origin of petitions.
While the project was almost completed, a coup de theater from the owner of the premises: the social landlord Paris Habitat reminded Carrefour that this premises was only intended for the sale of organic products, in accordance with the current wording of the lease. Bilan, a suspended organic store whose closure has been postponed until July.
Competing from traditional mass distribution and the rise of local products or products labeled “high environmental quality” or « pesticide-free”, businesses specializing in the sale of organic products have experienced a sudden slowdown in their activity since the end of 2021. . Even the market leaders, accustomed to double-digit growth for years, saw their turnover fall in 2022: – 5.6% to nearly 1.5 billion euros for Biocoop (765 stores in France ), and – 7.8% to 355 million euros for Naturalia (245 stores).
Strategic shift
While players have noted the beginnings of a market recovery in recent months, this reversal has forced them to put a stop to their expansion plans. After thirty-eight store openings in 2021, Naturalia had planned between thirty and forty in 2022. There were only twenty-three, twelve of which were existing businesses that joined the brand. And twenty-six have closed. Naturalia has even just announced, in April, a strategic shift, with the extension of its offer to “good” and “healthy” products for which “the organic label will no longer necessarily be a prerequisite”. After thirty-six closures for forty-two openings in 2022, its competitor Biocoop estimates that around forty stores will lower the curtain in 2023 for seventeen which will open.
The Biocoop of Tallard, a rural town in the Hautes-Alpes, is one of them. The store closed in March, as did that of rue Carnot, in Gap, capital of the department. “Our economic situation left us no choice in order to save the other two stores in Gap”, justified the owners of the cooperative member of the network, on their website.
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