End in sight for price dispute between Nestlé and Colruyt, Edeka and Intermarché?

Colruyt, Edeka and Intermarché are approaching a deal in their price dispute with Nestlé. The Swiss food manufacturer will make concessions in a new proposal as the retailers’ supplies are dwindling.

Partial boycott

It seems the “aggressive and European coordinated move” against Nestlé, as described by Nestlé CEO Ulf Mark Schneider, is coming to an end. The annual price negotiations between the Swiss company and Agecore (the collaboration between Colruyt, Edeka, Intermarché and other companies) proved to be a failure earlier this year: the supermarkets did not agree to the manufacturer’s new pricing and demanded that these were lowered.

Nestlé refused to do that, resulting in a (partial) boycott on the supermarkets’ end: Colruyt halted its orders in February, according to De Tijd, while German Edeka boycotts 30 % of Nestlé sales. 

Concessions, but no deal yet

It seems Nestlé is accepting defeat now and is willing to lower its prices: the food group has now tabled a new proposal and according to German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine, a deal is close by. Edeka CEO Markus Mosa has also told Reuters that there was progress and that the retailer wants to end the dispute. However, the concessions are not yet sufficient for the supermarket chains: “Nestlé did propose something, but that is currently still unacceptable”, Mosa said. Colruyt also informed De Tijd that the negotiations are going the right way, but that no deal has been reached. 

The business paper did say that supplies are running out: at least 57 different Nestlé products are already out of stock at Colruyt.