Coca-Cola will demand higher prices from retailers from September 1st. Edeka apparently does not want to accept this.
(Photo: imago images/Waldmüller)
Dusseldorf Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite could soon be in short supply on Edeka shelves. Because Germany’s largest food chain does not want to accept the price increases of the US beverage brand. According to industry information, Coca-Cola then informed Edeka that it would no longer supply the retailer for the time being.
The German Coca-Cola bottler, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, has increased gross list prices as of September 1, the company confirms to the Handelsblatt. The “Lebensmittelzeitung” reported first.
Coca-Cola usually presents a new price list in November. According to Coke sales manager Florian von Salzen, the price adjustment takes into account the current market environment with significant cost increases for energy, preliminary products and services.
The average price increase for all products and packs is in the “higher single-digit percentage range and is thus well below the current food inflation and, for example, also below the price development of many retail brands”. In August, consumer prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 16.6 percent compared to the same month last year. This is shown by the first estimates by the Federal Statistical Office.
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Edeka announced that it would not comment on supplier relationships. The cooperative is known for tough price negotiations and thus presents itself as the “Robin Hood of the consumer”.
Edeka is apparently also currently arguing about prices with the US group Mondelez. Because abroad, the Milka bar is sometimes much cheaper. The Edeka shelves with Milka chocolate are currently empty. Mondelez did not want to comment publicly on talks with trading partners.
Delivery stop and delisting as leverage
Edeka was also in a clinch with fruit juice manufacturer Eckes-Granini for a long time. Granini and Hohes C juices were missing from Edeka stores for more than a year. In the dispute with Pepsico, Edeka listed the entire range of the US group in December – from Pepsi to Lay’s Chips. An agreement was only reached in the spring.
Rewe boss Lionel Souque is also annoyed by the price increases that Coca-Cola is demanding. The beverage company argues in analyst presentations that the brand is reducing its costs through austerity programs – and then justifies Rewe’s demands for price increases with rising costs, Souque said on Wednesday evening before the “Business Journalists’ Association” in Düsseldorf.
The majority of the suppliers are behaving sensibly, said the Rewe boss. “But we have a problem with the really big manufacturers who have the power to enforce demands.”
Many companies are “free riders (…) surfing the price wave and profiting from it to improve their results,” said Souque. “Many multinationals are making more dividend income than last year.” The Cologne-based group is fighting back against the demands: “We are fighting brutally against it.” Overall, however, consumers in Germany have to adjust to higher food prices, warns the Rewe boss.
With agency material
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