Dispute between Coca-Cola and E. Leclerc about pricing

French supermarket chain group E. Leclerc and Coca-Cola are not seeing eye to eye at the moment: the discounter refuses to accept Coca-Cola’s price increases for 2018, which has left several stores without the American drinks for several weeks.

Supplies through other channels?

There is a price dispute between E. Leclerc and Coca-Cola: several of the French chain’s supermarkets have a label where normally the drinks would be, saying that “a dispute with supplier Coca-Cola, which wants to increase its products’ prices considerably for 2018, has left E. Leclerc without a deal”. The supermarket chain apologizes for the stock interruption.

Bottling company Coca-Cola European Partners France admits it has failed to reach a deal with Leclerc, but both companies have refused to comment about the current negotiations. The annual talks went awry in December, but the consequences have only been visible in stores just now.

Leclerc has allegedly contacted another source to acquire the popular drinks: instead of distributor Coca-Cola European Partners, it has now apparently found an Eastern European supplier, which it may have approached through its European purchase alliance Eurelec. This may explain why some Leclerc supermarkets have Coca-Cola with different labels, according to the paper Le Parisien.