The price dispute between the US beverage company Coca-Cola and the Hamburg supermarket chain Edeka threatens to escalate. As of September 1st, the markets in Germany will no longer be supplied with brown sugar effervescence.
At the turn of the month, Coca-Cola wants to raise the prices that retailers have to pay for the group’s products. This emerges from an internal letter from Edeka, which the “Lebensmittel Zeitung” first reported on. The Hamburg retail chain refuses to support the “unilaterally announced” adjustment.
Is Coca-Cola flying out of the Edeka stores?
Coca-Cola did not confirm the imminent delivery stop to the trade magazine, instead referring to ongoing discussions with some trading partners. Among them, apparently, Edeka.
In the worst case, customers might end up with empty shelves instead of the large range from the “Coca-Cola” brewing empire. The beverage giant and Edeka have been at odds for several years: it was only at the beginning of the year that the two companies settled their differences, at least for a short time. The core topic of the debate is always the respective pricing policies.
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“Coca-Cola” competitor “Pepsi” also flew off the shelves of Edeka stores at the end of 2021 because of a similar dispute. And just this summer, the “Hohes C” and “Granini” juice brands returned there following being absent for more than a year. The reason for this was also a price increase by the manufacturer, which Edeka had not wanted to accept. (fbo)
