Lidl and Leclerc big winners in France

Lidl and Leclerc keep growing their market share in the hyper-competitive French food market, which has barely seen any growth as a whole. Most of their success comes at the cost of Carrefour, Casino and Auchan, which are all in a state of decline.

Lidl keeps growing

The French are increasingly eschewing the stock market. In a barely growing market, Lidl continues to thrive. In the period from May 13th to June 9th, the German fresh food discounter made a little sprint: Lidl won half a percent of marketshare and so ended at 5.9%. Market research agency Kantar considers two explanations: 460,000 new families joined the chain’s customer base in the past year and “Lidl customers spent 9% more in that period than they did in the same period a year before.”
 

With that, Lidl is comparatively doing a tad better than the Leclerc group, which has gained 0.3 percentage points, ending at 21.7%. Two thirds of that growth comes from the stores and one third is due to the drive pickup points. Système U has also grown by 0.3% and now has a 10.8% marketshare.

Carrefour loses out

Now that these results have been announced, retail watchers are calculating the balance of the first half of the year. It’s clear that Carrefour emerges as the loser. While major rival Leclerc is reinforcing its pole position with a marketshare of 21.3% in the first trimester and 21.6% in the second, Carrefour’s marketshare has dropped below the symbolic 20% threshold: from 20.5% in the first quarter to 19.9% in the second. That means CEO Alexandre Bompard has a lot of work to do.
 

Les Mousquetaires (Intermarché & co.) and Système U are both groups that use independent proprietors. They’ve grown by 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively. That puts Système U, which passed by Auchan last year, just below fourth place. That position is currently still held by Casino. However, Casino’s marketshare is receding at an accelerating pace: -0.3% in Q1 and -0.5% in the second quarter.