French market leader E.Leclerc had a particularly strong year in 2023. Other independent formats also did well. Carrefour is under some pressure, hard discounters are stagnating.
Impressive
The E.Leclerc group ended the year with a market share of 23.5 % (+ 1.1 %) in France, a quite impressive growth in a particularly competitive market. The fact that the retailer is not only the market leader, but also the price leader on the French market, may be part of the explanation in the current economic conditions. Carrefour, the French runner-up, had a difficult year: the retailer lost 0.1 % in market share, falling to 19.8 %. Hypermarkets in particular are losing some ground.
E.Leclerc is a cooperative of independents, and it is notable that other groups of independents also did very well in France. Les Mousquetaires, the group above Intermarché and Netto, gained 0.3 % to 16.1 %. Group U (Hyper U and Super U) gained 0.2 % to 11.8 %, LSA quotes from figures by market research firm Kantar.
Selling out
The losers in France are actually obvious: the ailing Casino group fell 1 % to 5.9 %. Next year, that figure will be considerably lower as the retailer sells several hundred super- and hypermarkets to Auchan and Intermarché. That will give Auchan Retail a chance to grow again after a difficult year (- 0.3 % to 8.6 %).
The Louis Delhaize group ends its final year in France with a 2.4 % market share (- 0.1 %): that group has sold its operations to Carrefour and will thus disappear from the French market entirely next year.
The two major German hard discounters were unable to make any headway in France last year. Lidl remains stuck at 7.8 %, Aldi retains 2.8 %.
