Simon Hunter
FRENCH supermarket giant Carrefour has announced that it is to pull all PepsiCo products from its stores in Spain, France, Italy and Belgium, for one simple reason: ‘unacceptable price increases’.
The move by the distribution firm will mean that Spanish consumers will no longer be able to buy products such as Pepsi and 7Up drinks, Lay’s crisps and other snacks in Carrefour.
As of Thursday, the shelves in Carrefour’s French stores where the PepsiCo products were located started carrying a sign warning consumers about the change, news agency Reuters reported.
In Spain, meanwhile, the signs had not yet been put on the shelves by Thursday, according to financial daily Cinco Dias, and the products in question were still in stock. Carrefour’s communication department in Spain did not respond to a request for information from the newspaper.
The move is the latest in an ongoing tug-of-war between retailers and major food manufacturers such as Pepsico, according to Reuters. The news agency reported that the change will affect more than 9,000 stores across Spain, France and Belgium, which is two-thirds of its 14,348 stores across the globe.
Carrefour has in recent years been following a strategy of focusing on its own-brand products in a bid to offer consumers lower prices.
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