Carrefour Pulls Out Pepsi Products From Its EU Supermarkets

Carrefour, one of France’s biggest supermarket chains, will stop selling PepsiCo products because they have become too expensive, in the latest clash between retailers and their suppliers over prices, Hanna Ziady reported for CNN.

Stores in France will display a note alongside Pepsi, 7up and Lay’s chips, among other products, that reads: “We are no longer selling this brand due to unacceptable price increases. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.” I Photo: PepsiCo Facebook

Stores in France will display a note alongside Pepsi, 7up and Lay’s chips, among other products, that reads: “We are no longer selling this brand due to unacceptable price increases. We apologize for any inconvenience caused,” CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported.

BFM-TV also reported that Carrefour would pull PepsiCo products from stores in Italy, Spain, and Belgium as well.

The move marks an escalation in Carrefour’s attempts to pressure some of the world’s biggest consumer goods companies to cut their prices after hiking them over the past two years in response to soaring energy, commodity, and labor costs.

Reuters reported in September that Carrefour had started a “shrinkflation” campaign — slapping warnings on products ranging from Lindt chocolates to Lipton Ice Tea advising customers that they had shrunk in size, but still cost more, even though raw material costs had eased.

Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard has repeatedly said consumer goods companies are not cooperating in efforts to cut the price of thousands of staples, despite a fall in the cost of raw materials, according to Reuters.

But PepsiCo CEO Ramon L. Laguarta said on an earnings call in October that the company anticipated “higher inflation” in its business, which would keep prices elevated this year.

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