“Prices rose fastest at Colruyt, slowest at Delhaize”

New research in Belgium shows that over the past two years, prices of A-brand products rose the fasted at Colruyt, and slowest at Delhaize. At Carrefour, private brands have become much more expensive.

Delhaize focuses on prices

Since January 2022, prices at Colruyt rose by 30 % on average, compared to + 24.7 % at Carrefour and + 22 % at Delhaize, an analysis by the app PingPrice shows. The survey compared the price evolution of fifty well-known brands over the past two years at the three biggest Belgian food retailers.

Brand products became more expensive everywhere, but each time just a bit more at Colruyt. The market leader remains the cheapest, but the price differences have narrowed slightly, PingPrice CEO Christophe Echement told La DH. That observation is in line with the retailer’s financial results published in September: Colruyt said it could easily pass on price increases in 2023.

Interestingly, prices at Delhaize still rose by 22.5% in 2022, while remaining stable or even falling slightly in 2023. It does look like Delhaize is focusing on price cuts to win back customers after the storm its franchising plan caused in early 2023.

“Retailers defend their margins”

Between the (inter)national brands, Campina experienced the strongest price increase, followed by Vandemoortele, Materne, Hak and LU. Only one brand became cheaper during the period under review: Royco fell 5.46 % at Delhaize.

While A-brand products did become significantly more expensive, the same applies to private label products. At Carrefour, the average price hike was 21.3 %, compared to 17.98 % at Colruyt and 13.57 % at Delhaize. So-called first-price brands rose even faster in price: Simpl (Carrefour) went up 27.63 %, Delhaize’s 365 became 23.71 % more expensive and Colruyt’s Everyday limited price increases to 18.03 %.

Frying oil, frozen, flour produce, dairy and pasta saw the strongest price increases. Oil and dairy had a slight decrease in 2023, but it remains very limited compared to the huge increases of the past two years, Echement points out. The researcher is also critical of the recent price disputes in the sector: retailers profile themselves as defenders of low prices with those boycotts, but they mainly defend their own margins, he says.