Coop takes 95 branded products off the shelves
The retailer Coop is removing 95 branded products from its range. Coop's Head of Purchasing and Marketing, Jürg Peritz, told the Sonntagszeitung newspaper that the company wanted to send out a signal against the manufacturers' excessively high prices, which were making currency gains.
Items from L'Oréal (StudioLine), Mars (Uncle Ben's) and "children's" products from Ferrero are affected, as Coop writes on its homepage. "For months, we have been asking our suppliers to pass on their exchange rate gains to our customers by lowering their prices. Many large corporations and importers are now refusing to comply with this demand," it says.
According to Jürg Peritz, Coop had given the manufacturers an ultimatum until 12 noon last Thursday to lower their prices. "This deadline expired without those affected showing any willingness to pass on the currency gains to customers appropriately," he told the Sonntagszeitung.
In total, the products that have been removed represent a sales volume of 30 million Swiss francs, as Coop spokeswoman Sabine Vulic confirmed to the SDA news agency. It is "within the realms of possibility" that further products will be removed from the range.
The company is currently in tough negotiations with various other producers and suppliers. According to Vulic, some have already given in and agreed to price reductions. The next few days will show which other items may disappear from the Coop shelves.
Coop had already announced an average price reduction of 9 percent on 177 items on Friday. Denner and Spar had also announced price reductions. Denner is lowering the prices of around 50 products. The food discounter wants to put branded products on the shelves at 20 percent lower prices. Spar wants to lower the prices of various own brands.
The number one retailer in Switzerland, Migros, will make a possible decision to remove products from its range "next week at the earliest", according to spokesman Urs Peter Naef. (SDA)
