2023-09-27 08:46:14
Once once more, he will have had a head start. This Tuesday, September 26, around noon, barely five hours before the meeting which was held until 5:30 p.m. in Matignon around the key subject of the sale of fuel at cost price, the boss of the E. Leclerc brands, Michel- Edouard Leclerc, posted a tweet as laconic as it was explosive. “From September 29, the 750 service stations of Leclerc hypermarkets will sell gasoline daily at cost price. » And the media boss translates in this same tweet: “That clearly means without profit and every day, not just on weekends as during our previous operations. »
We had to wait barely five hours for Carrefour to quickly follow suit: “We are announcing the largest operation to sell fuel at cost in our history. We are committed to selling fuel, without margin, every day, from this Friday until the end of the year. This massive operation will cover all our hypermarkets,” announced the Alexandre Bompard brand in another tweet.
Casino, Cora, Intermarché….
By drawing the first ones this Monday, the Leclerc brands, to which everyone has been turning in recent days as they are prescribers in terms of prices, in particular on fuel, have relaunched the race for promotions. The government which, faced with the disapproval of distributors, had to give up reselling fuel at a loss last week, intended to maintain pressure on distributors, so that they renew their operations more often “at cost”.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne took the opportunity to recall the increase in the price of a barrel to more than 90 dollars today, compared to 73 dollars at the end of June. At the end of the meeting, the government communicated on “nearly 120,000 operations” of selling fuel at cost price “in 4,000 stations”, until the end of the year. “Some stakeholders already say they are ready to extend their efforts further if necessary,” added an advisor.
The Carrefour and Leclerc brands have therefore committed to carrying out such operations every day. For their part, Casino, Cora and Intermarché will carry out two weekends per month. As of mid-September, Intermarché had already given some dates: September 29 and 30, then October 27 and 28, November 24 and 25, and December 15 and 16. For Système U and Auchan, it is “at least one weekend per month” (October 7 and 8 for Système U), according to Matignon.
Earlier in the morning, Système U boss Dominique Schelcher confirmed on BFMTV-RMC that these operations might not be permanent, citing “low margins, 2 cents on average per liter”. Matignon recalls that these commitments are in addition to the freezing by TotalEnergies of the price at 1.99 euros per liter in its 3,400 stations.
A fuel check of 100 euros
The Prime Minister once once more invited stakeholders from the sector in December. At the same time, it also launched a mission “for each brick of the fuel production chain, from oil production to refining, transport and distribution” to provide transparency on real costs and margins, and “identify where appropriate, actors who would apply margins that might be considered disproportionate.”
Knowing that selling at cost price, in the opinion of all experts, should only allow consumers to earn a few cents per liter, Emmanuel Macron also announced, this weekend, the renewal in 2024 of “the worker fuel allowance” of 100 euros per year. This measure, from which some 5 million French people might benefit, is expected to cost 500 million euros.
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