For Pierre-Alexandre Billiet, distribution sector expert at Gondola, at Colruyt, “the fundamentals are questioned, but no one has the impression that Colruyt itself is questioning its fundamentals“.
The policy of guaranteeing the lowest price, where each Colruyt store aligns itself with the prices practiced by its neighboring competitors, is costing Colruyt dearly, in particular in the north of the country, where Dutch supermarkets have attacked in force.
“The total liberalization of the market means that other distributors, including Albert Heijn and Jumbo, can operate at a loss from abroad“, explains Pierre-Alexandre Billiet.
The fact that these Dutch distributors sell at a loss in Belgium has not been proven, but there are indications that this is so. “There are products that are cheaper in Belgium than in the Netherlands. This is totally illogical and impossible with the cost of employment etc. in Belgium“, notes Pierre-Alexandre Billiet.
Therefore, with this competition, Colruyt “is handicapped by the lowest price strategy and by matching“, underlines the marketing expert who, in passing, pinpoints the responsibility of the Belgian authorities who, in the mid-1990s, liberalized the distribution sector to bring down prices.
Any benefit for purchasing power, but today it has consequences and destabilizes the entire Belgian distribution sector, Colruyt being no exception. “It’s not just prices that are falling, jobs are falling“, explains Pierre-Alexandre Billiet and, “at the end of the food chain, farmers are dying“, he continues.
