Brand manufacturers Nestlé and Ad van Geloven (Mora) are currently no longer supplying products to Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn. The reason for this is disagreement about price increases that the producers want to implement.
Tense relationships
Products of among others KitKat, Nescafé, Maggi, Mora and Van Dobben are currently missing on the shelves of Albert Heijn in the Netherlands and Belgium. Sources within Albert Heijn have confirmed to Distrifood that there is disagreement about price increases that the manufacturers want to implement, and to which the supermarket chain objects. As a result, both Nestlé and Ad van Geloven would have decided to stop supplying the retailer.
AH spokesperson Ann Maes explains to Belgian newspaper De Tijd that Nestlé wants to increase the prices by more than 20 % – a claim that Nestlé has, meanwhile, vehemently denied. “We do not accept that”, she says. Meanwhile, the dispute with frozen food producer Ad van Geloven is almost over.
The conflict is typical of the strained relations between retailers and their suppliers throughout Europe. Due to the enormous increase in the costs of raw materials, transport and energy, both branded and private label manufacturers want to increase the prices significantly. This is not to the liking of food retailers, who suspect their suppliers of taking advantage of the opportunity to raise prices disproportionately in order to pump up their margins.
“Inexplicable differences”
Just last month, Colruyt Group‘s operational director Marc Hofman accused manufacturers of opportunism: “We see large and inexplicable differences between producers of similar products,” he stated to RetailDetail at the time. In Dutch trade media Ton van Veen, financial director of Jumbo, recently made similar statements.
The difficult negotiations between retailers and manufacturers also lead to open boycotts and delistings here and there. At Colruyt, Nutella and Mondelez products disappeared from the shelves; German market leader Edeka is in conflict with PepsiCo and L’Oréal, among others.
