Colruyt has taken at least 18 Nestlé products from its shelves, because it failed to reach a deal about the pricing. For that reason, the products have been temporarily removed from Colruyt stores.
“Exaggeration”
It includes Herta’s bacon cubes, Nestlé’s baby food, yoghurt or Nesquik cocoa powder. Colruyt wants Nestlé to offer lower prices and as long as it does not, it no longer wants to buy the products.
“We regret Colruyt’s decision to no longer sell several Nestlé products”, Nestlé Belgium’s spokesperson Florence Maniquet told De Tijd. “It is an exaggeration, because the negotiations between Nestlé and Agecore are still on-going. We hope to bring this discussion to an end soon and as friends.”
“The talks between Agecore and Nestlé are still on-going. We are convinced that, as always, both companies will reach to an agreement, but we cannot divulge any additional information”, Colruyt spokesperson Silja De Cock said.
Agecore
Colruyt belongs to European purchase alliance Agecore, which also represents a range of European supermarket chains. Right now, Nestlé is in an open conflict with Agecore. Seeing how it includes German Edeka and French Intermarché, it uses its power to pressure manufactures into lower prices. For the same reason, PepsiCo’s products were temporarily taken off Colruyt’s shelves in November 2017.
However, Nestlé is a sizeable competitor for Agecore, because it is one of the world’s largest food companies and has just created a strategy focused on profit. That begs the question who will cave the fastest, because supermarket chains cannot keep it up to withhold popular products for a long time.
