Almost 28 billion paper brochures end up in German mailboxes every year – annoying for some, for others a beloved routine to discover THE bargain of the week.
Retail giant Rewe puts an end to this! From July 1, 2023 there will no longer be a classic paper brochure, the company announced – from August the circulation is expected to shrink by more than 15 percent.
Rewe currently distributes around 25 million leaflets per week.
The reason for the supermarket brochure-off: Simply doing without would result in savings of more than 73,000 tons of paper per year, 70,000 tons of CO₂, 1.1 million tons of water and 380 million kilowatt hours of energy per year. At the same time, the step “in times of crisis is a solidarity contribution to support the challenging security of supply of energy sources in our country for the future”.
Because the truth also includes: The paper shortage in Germany is getting worse and the producer prices and also the paper prices are rising rapidly. According to the “Federal Statistical Office”, from June 2021 to June 2022 alone there was a price increase of 28.1 percent – a lot of money for brochures that end up directly in the bin.
The paper industry also fears production stops in view of the threat of gas bottlenecks. “No one knows whether they will still be able to produce in autumn or winter,” said association president Winfried Schaur last week. A gas stop would therefore bring paper production to a virtual standstill, it said. This would also affect vital products for the food supply or hygiene.
- Hardware store giant Obi has not advertised its products and offers in paper form since June 2022.
- The furniture company Ikea Despite its great popularity, has not sent out its catalog since 2021 and relies on digital product .
- Also Kik and Woolworth do without brochures in paper form.
What are Aldi, Kaufland and Edeka doing?
BILD asked other retail giants: will you soon be doing without the supermarket brochures?
► Aldi Süd to BILD: “Especially at the moment, many customers expect the brochures to be delivered in order to find out where they can buy the cheapest food of the best quality. We only use FSC®-certified paper for the leaflet, which we also mark with the blue angel.”
What is FSC® -certified paper? The “Forest Stewardship Council” is an NGO that confirms that raw materials come from responsible forest management. The Blue Angel confirms that 100% waste paper was used.
► Kaufland continues to use the classic print edition of brochures in addition to the digital form: “Our customer brochure is an important channel for us to inform our customers on the one hand regarding offers and our product range and on the other hand regarding company content such as e.g. B. to inform sustainability issues. In addition, our customers can find e.g. B. also worth knowing regarding individual products. We will therefore of course continue to offer our customers a customer brochure both in print and on our website, and also inform them via the online channels and app.”
► Edeka is also trying to expand its digital offer in product , but confirmed to BILD: “We know (…) that many of our customers do not want to do without the printed flyer, and we also want to reach these people.” FSC®-certified paper.
► Discounters Lidl to BILD: Initially, they wanted to stick to the classic brochures because they were “a central medium of our marketing activities”.
► Also Net plans further with paper brochures.
OBI, Kik, Woolworth, Ikea and Rewe will probably be left alone with their completely digital product for the time being and the mailboxes will not be completely free of .
Because: The success of paper brochures speaks for itself: Ingo Wienand, CEO at Media Central Group, told “MEEDIA”: “90 percent of people read brochures and 76 percent even read brochures weekly.”
