“
I am delighted!
»Michel Biero, executive director of Lidl France, does not hide his joy.
According to the latest Kantar study - Worldpanel 2021 panel, which covers the month of October (from 4 to 31), the German brand has seen its market share increase by 0.4 points to reach 7.2% of the total for the sector in France.
It thus doubled on the Carrefour Market thread, which stagnated at around 7.1%.
A "
historic
result
for the symbol
" according to Olivier Dauvers, specialist in mass distribution.
Be careful, however, to excess satisfaction, this top 5 only concerns the month of October.
Over the year Carrefour Market continued to lead the race by 0.5 points ahead of Lidl.
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Although striking, the result was expected.
"We did not fall from the chair,
" admits Michel Biero. Indeed the sign comes out of a very positive year "
with sales up 12 to 14% in 2020
", explains the director, "
and 2021 is taking the same path
". Such increases were bound to have an impact on market share.
For Olivier Dauvers, the result constitutes a “
historic shift
” as the two competitors (Carrefour Market and Lidl) were far apart in terms of market share a few years ago: “
5 years ago, for example, the gap between two brands reached 2.5 points!
He points out in a note.
However, this catching up is partly due to a “
park effect
”.
“
Lidl is currently expanding its fleet.
Not so much with new stores, but by greatly enlarging existing ones
”, which mathematically brings a higher number of customers and therefore gains market share.
Conversely, "
Carrefour Market has reduced its fleet by 10%
", illustrates Olivier Dauvers.
Auchan and Casino losers
This renewal is both the strength and the weakness of the discounter. A weakness because it means that profits do not move at the same speed as sales. But a strength because this park effect should have an impact on sales growth "
for two to three years at least
", according to Olivier Dauvers. Indeed, the discounter has not finished expanding these stores: "
between a quarter and a third remain to be renovated
", he explains. The latter therefore sees Lidl continue to grow and quickly compete with Carrefour Market and even overtake it: "
mechanically we know that Lidl will be at 10% market share in 5 or 6 years
".
Another German discounter also manages to do well. Aldi sees an increase in market share equivalent to that of Lidl, even if its weight in France remains moderate (2.7%).
Here too a park effect comes into play according to Kantar: Aldi France bought 545 Leader Price stores from Casino a year ago.
An increase in market share was therefore expected.
Finally, the E.Leclerc Group has seen equivalent progress and remains the undisputed leader in the sector with 22.2% of the market share.
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Obviously not everyone can come out a winner.
The two main losers are Auchan and Casino.
For the first, this decrease is explained by the brand's exposure to large hypermarkets.
A segment that has not been on the rise for several years.
For the second, the fall comes from the sale of many stores (Géant, Leader Price) to competitors.
