Rewe is demanding price cuts from consumer goods manufacturers.
These fight back in the face of rising production costs.
The dispute threatens to escalate.
Cologne - The relationship between grocers and consumer goods producers is characterized by tension.
While Rewe, Edeka or Lidl want to buy as cheaply as possible, manufacturers like Dr.
Oetker, Mars or Haribo sell their products at the highest possible prices.
In so-called annual meetings, dealers and producers fix delivery conditions such as quantity and price.
If the partners do not agree, threatening backdrops are created.
The retailer takes products off the shelves, the manufacturer stops deliveries.
Rewe calls for price cuts from industry: the dispute threatens to escalate
Now the dispute threatens
to escalate
according to information from the
Lebensmittel Zeitung
. In the current annual talks, Rewe not only rejects planned price increases by the industry, but also calls for price reductions. According to this, Germany's second largest grocer started negotiations with suppliers of various product groups with demands for better conditions in the order of 2.5 to three percent. This is justified with higher costs for logistics, energy and raw materials such as paper for flyers
In industry, which is confronted with rising raw material or energy prices, the demands are met with incomprehension.
Rewe does not seem to be alone in this.
Other retailers such as Edeka or Kaufland should make similar demands.
In some cases, it should even be about improving conditions of up to five percent.
Rewe calls for price reductions from industry: on January 1st, the shelf gaps could become larger
The
Lebensmittel Zeitung
describes the mood as "explosive".
In view of their difficult situation, manufacturers actually demand price increases in the double-digit percentage range from retailers.
The situation threatens to worsen as the manufacturers have to correct their price lists drawn up in late summer, which already contain price increases, upwards due to the worsening situation.
The fact that the conflicts are not yet escalating across the board is due to the fact that the majority of the existing contracts run until December 31.
Until then, delivery stops can only be legally implemented in exceptional cases.
For example, Edeka clashed with L'Oreal.
From January 1st, however, there may be more gaps in the shelves.
Rewe calls for price reductions from industry: controversial issues of price guarantees and delivery quotas
Not only when it comes to prices, retailers and manufacturers have different ideas.
The manufacturers encounter the long-term price guarantees and delivery quotas demanded by the retailers.
In addition, at the request of individual buyers, they should even disclose their contracts with raw material suppliers in order to prove their increased raw material costs.
The retailers, on the other hand, are dissatisfied with the poor delivery performance of large branded goods, which is expected to drag on into the next few years.
For weeks now, Mars has been delivering fewer bounty bars than retailers have ordered.
The confectionery manufacturer cannot say when the problems will end.
