Doing Business In (Insert Country Name Here) - BNA

France employing 39,000 people. These stores represent about 12 percent of total food
sales and usually sell generic products or their own private-label items. The top five
hard-discount companies are Lidl, Ed, Aldi, Leader Price and Netto.
- Large Specialized Stores (Grandes surfaces spécialisées):
Large specialized stores offer an extensive choice of goods in a specific category at a
competitive price and with an emphasis on customer service. This dynamic sector
included over 10,000 stores in 2007, including such store categories as do-it-yourself
equipment stores (2,454 outlets), textiles (2,833 outlets), beauty/heath products (2,040
outlets), gardening (1,451 outlets), toys (937 outlets), media/books/music (427 outlets).
- Multi-Channel Retail Groups (Groupes de distribution multi-canaux):
The distinctions made above between hypermarket chains, supermarket chains, etc. are
becoming blurred. In recent years, major multi-channel retail groups owning chains of
different types of stores have emerged. Pinault-Printemps and Nouvelles Galeries
Réunies fall into this category, because they own chains of specialty and convenience
stores.
- Traditional retail food outlets (Magasins de detail traditionnels):
Traditional outlets include a broad array of establishments, from corner grocery stores,
bakeries, and neighborhood butcher shops to open air markets to frozen and gourmet
food stores. The aggressive expansion of mass distribution outlets threaten these
traditional outlets, which account for 20 percent of the country’s total retail food
distribution and represent a total of about 50,000 stores. To survive, these outlets must
have flexible store hours, product variety, and special services such as home delivery.
Small neighborhood store chains offer U.S. suppliers entry into the French market.
- Gas-Marts (Boutiques de stations d’essence):
Linked with gasoline stations, these account for less than one percent of total food sales
and about 400 outlets in France.
- Central Buying Offices (Centrales d'achats):
In addition to contacting the largest store chains listed above, introducing products via
central buying agencies is an excellent distribution method. A complete list of French
central buying agencies, the Annuaire des Supermarchés, Hypermarchés, Centrales
d'Achat et Groupements d'Achats, is available for about € 363.99 (freight included) from:
L.S.A - Libre Service Actualités
Tel: (+33) 1.49.04.48.50
Fax: (+33) 1.49.04.48.51
Website [http://www.lsa.fr/]
Mass retail distribution Directory:
[http://www.tradedimensions.fr]
2/15/2008 Country Commercial Guide for France 17
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT, U.S. & FOREIGN COMMERCIAL SERVICE AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
© 2007. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES.