To lower the prices of hundreds of products, Michel-Edouard Leclerc will take from his margin

On BFMTV, Michel-Edouard Leclerc explains that they will use their margins to lower the prices of hundreds of products over the course of two to three weeks.

In January, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, president of E.Leclerc, said he wanted to “crush inflation”. This Sunday March 24, on BFMTV, the leader said he “won his luck”.

“We went to fight with the multinationals to bring the inflation to the lowest level. I think that in 2024, we will be at 2 to 3 points of inflation in general. In the hypermarket, we will break this hyper-speculative movement affecting the portfolio. of the French”, Michel -Edouard Leclerc declared.

If the inflationary movement has slowed down, what will happen to the prices at the checkout? The manager reiterates that we shouldn’t expect prices to return before 2019. On the other hand, it explains how it will reduce the cost in its centers.

“In the competition we participate in with Carrefour or Auchan, we will also land on our margins. It is not only the terms of purchase that determine the prices,” explains Michel-Edouard Leclerc, without saying which products will be concerned.

“I’m not going to reveal it to you before, because they’ll get it in their noses in 15 days or three weeks,” he jokes to his contestants.

Towards structural inflation in 10 years

He agreed to only hint that the price cuts would affect “hundreds of products”.

“What I can say with relative certainty because we buy them 6 months in advance, is that everything related to the international market, including tableware, textiles, next year’s Christmas toys,” says Michel-Edouard Leclerc.

That explains the origin of this decline. On the one hand, the large stock in China due to the decline in sales in Asia, on the other hand, the cost of transport which is “not too prohibitive at the moment”.

But for the leader, inflation will continue.

“We are now entering a more virtuous cycle in terms of ecology but which costs more to produce. Decarbonisation, the transfer of supply, the fact that we have lost markets like Russia.”

“Standards have costs, and costs have costs. So there will be more structural inflation, which will be more widespread in 10 years,” predicts Michel-Edouard Leclerc.