The top 10 foodstore operators in France are a mixture of international and local brands with either a mass-market or value-orientated focus (see table, below). All operators have seen an uptick in their fortune in 2020 with an increase in overall sales, fuelled predominately by the more significant growth in the sale of food and grocery products and online shopping.

Food and grocery sales have understandably seen a greater degree of growth than overall sales, which includes non-food items. With the restrictions on our freedom and the absence of hospitality and food service locations, consumers have had to turn to grocery operators in order to be self-subsistent. That said, like with all markets across Europe, online has seen the largest positive change. With the exception of Super U, Lidl and Aldi which don’t have online offerings, each of the remaining top 10 operators has seen online sales increase by a third or more.

Casino Supermarkets are the one exception to the rule – they saw their food and grocery sales remain flat in 2020, despite being the brand with the most significant improvement in online sales, increasing by half at 50.9%. This in fact meant they saw a slight decline in their overall sales total for 2020. However, this could still be considered a favourable performance for the brand. Casino Supermarkets are predominately a convenience-led city-centre operator, with an average store size of 52 sq m. With much of non-essential retail across Europe closed for large periods, and the working population encouraged to stay at home to avoid social contact in town and city centre locations, the brand will have missed much of the daily passing trade it would typically have captured in the days before Covid-19. For larger format out-of-town brands this is less of a problem, with many such brands actually benefiting from the fact larger hypermarket destinations allow better social distancing, an important factor in the public’s consciousness with the potential spread of the virus. However, for a convenience-orientated brand that has seen a significant reduction in the daily footfall it typically relies upon, a performance with no prominent loss in sales is undoubtedly a positive one.

With improvement in sales performance across the board for France’s major grocery operators, 2020 has seen very little shift in market share for any one retailer. Carrefour saw food and grocery sales increase by nearly 5% over the last 12 months, with online grocery sales improving by as much as 48.1%. They have therefore taken the opportunity to speculate and have taken as many as 111 new stores since the beginning of 2019, seemingly pursuing a strong acquisition strategy whilst the going is good. Most of the top 10, however, have been more modest in their approach, choosing to only make a handful of new openings or indeed remain with the status quo as they wait to see what impact the pandemic will have on their finances going forward. Intermarché, Auchan and Casino Supermarkets have actually taken the opportunity to somewhat rationalise their portfolios and dispose of a small number of stores that they feel are surplus to requirements.

Interestingly, Super U have taken a similar approach to Carrefour, opening 64 stores in the last 12 months, despite no online offer to support their sales growth since the onset of the pandemic. As an organic superfood brand, they offer a unique point of difference for the consumer that appears to be particularly relevant in an increasingly health-conscious society, especially in a time when the majority of our meals are serviced in our homes, and health and well-being is at the forefront of our minds.

_{Read the articles within Spotlight: European Food and Groceries Sector below.}