Big Grocer Pulls Unilever Items Over Pricing - WSJ.com
2014年4月14日
WSJ
WSJ LIVE
MARKETWATCH BARRON'S
PORTFOLIO
DJX
THE SHOPS
MORE
News, Quotes, Companies, Videos
Fei's Journal c
BUSINESS
Live Help
Menu
r
SEARCH
Upgrade Your Account: Get 3 Months for the Price of 1 »
TOP STORIES IN BUSINESS
1 of 12
2 of 12
Google Agrees to
Buy Drone Maker
Titan
Wal-Mart Fights
Back in China
3 of 12
Connecting Africa's
Unconnected
4 of 12
Washington Post, Guardian
Win Pulitzers
BUSINESS
Big Grocer Pulls Unilever Items Over Pricing
Email
Print
Save
Comments
Popular Now
What's This?
ARTICLES
By C EC IL IE R OH WED D ER , AAR ON O. PATR IC K a n d TIM OTH Y W. M AR TIN
Updated Feb. 11, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET
A big grocery chain has removed from its Belgian stores about 300 Unilever
UN +1.28% products that it says are priced too high, a sign of mounting tension between retailers and suppliers as the recession grinds on.
The move by Brusselsbased Delhaize SA, which operates the Food Lion chain and other grocery stores in the U.S., comes just days after Unilever reported strong fourth quarter profit that was driven in large part by its ability to command big price increases despite the ailing economy.
The banished products include everything from Dove soap and Axe deodorant to a jam brand called Effi. Delhaize normally stocks as many as 500 Unilever products in its 775 stores in Belgium.
The staredown shows how fraught relations between retailers and their suppliers are becoming amid the severe slump in consumer spending. Grocery
A Delhaize City store in Brussels. Cassandra stores across the globe are putting
Vinograd/The Wall Street Journal growing pressure on food and drink companies to lower prices or to offer other more favorable terms.
Faced with pennypinching consumers and the growing strength of discount stores, retailers are desperate to cut prices, and a growing number are asking suppliers to help foot the bill.
Meanwhile, consumergoods companies such as Unilever are struggling with a drop in demand from stores whose customers are trading down to cheaper privatelabel brands.
Earlier this month, Kraft Foods Inc. lowered its earnings guidance for the year as retailers, including WalMart Stores Inc., WMT +1.15% cut back orders.
Delhaize says its conflict with Unilever is rooted in the supplier's effort to push a broad range of goods into its stores, including some that the grocer says it would prefer not to stock because they are unpopular. If the supermarket doesn't buy the whole range of products, Delhaize says, Unilever has threatened to raise prices by an average of 30% for the remaining items.
"They want to impose their product assortment on us," says Lisbeth Rogiers, a spokeswoman for Delhaize, which operates more than 2,500 stores in five countries, including more than 1,500 in the U.S. "That is unacceptable for our customers, and we always put our customers at the center of our decisions."
Unilever wants Delhaize to promise it won't stop selling Unilever products without consulting the company first, Unilever spokeswoman Auré;lie Gerth says. The http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123430797027570341 1
'Barn Drama' Puts
Riders on Their
High Horses
2
Dangers of Giving
Your Home to Your
Children
5
Opinion: The West
Leaves Ukraine to
Putin
4
Google Agrees to
Buy Drone Maker
Titan
3
Three Questions for
April 15
VIDEO
1
Penguin Dance
Sweeps Saudi
Arabia
2
Scientists
Transplant Lab
Made Sexual
Organs
3
Opinion: Should
Congress Lock Up
Lois Lerner?
4
Woman Throws
Shoe at Hillary
1/3
Big Grocer Pulls Unilever Items Over Pricing - WSJ.com
2014年4月14日
Clinton During
Speech
AngloDutch consumergoods giant wants to increase prices for Delhaize by an average
2.5%, she adds.
Delhaize is the only large retailer in Belgium that hasn't agreed to a price rise this year, she says.
Unilever managed to push through
