Retail: The "extraordinary" measures they have been taking for years and the... high fines

Monday, April 29, 2024

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A common element shared by the positions of all four interlocutors was that the government was forced in recent years due to circumstances to take extraordinary measures to ensure the smooth operation of the market, such as the "locked" profit margin for chains, which, however, cannot and should not be kept indefinitely. All of them also agreed that the inflation situation in Greece is the same or even better than in other European countries and that the market is working properly, although, as Mr. Anagnostopoulos said, "it can always be better."

Especially on the subject of "locked" profit margins, Aristotle Panteliadis pointed out that "when an emergency measure takes too long, it creates distortions in the market", and this specific measure prevents companies from exercising commercial policy, at a time when consumer habits have change. For his part, Konstantinos Sotiropoulos emphasized that competition works extremely well in Greece, but state interventionism is something that worries, especially large groups such as Mondelez, while Christos Tsolkas noted that the data show that the market has not some structural problem, and he commented that there is no reason for an independent "committee of wise men" that will give proposals for measures in the market, as long as all market stakeholders agree and provide solutions to any problems.

Disagreement about the... high fines

Disagreement has arisen over the issue of fines announced by the government, with Aristotelis Panteliadis revealing that his company was recently fined by an auditor because a tag had fallen off the shelf. "I completely disagree with the punitive speech expressed by the government. We keep hearing about fines, and then we send the message that competition doesn’t work and continuous interventions are needed and we maintain a bad business climate", argued Mr. Panteliadis, while commenting that there is also a problem of informing the public, as "only bad news sells”, and for this reason the constant debate about accuracy falsely creates the impression that there is a dirty profit. In response, Sotiris Anagnostopoulos explained that the reason why the fines are announced is not punitive, but to make consumers aware that there are control mechanisms that work, unlike what happened in the past. The panel also discussed the ministry’s initiative to limit offers in specific categories of products, with Mr. Panteliadis noting that retailers are already in continuous negotiations with suppliers to reduce only offers and not retail discounts, and to express the opinion that the measure should not be extended to other product categories, because it may create conflicts between the two main pillars of the market.

"There can be no speculation"

As to whether there is speculation in the market where Mondelez operates, Konstantinos Sotiropoulos was categorical: "in our products there can be no speculation for three reasons: the structure of the trade, which has many stores, different types of stores, so competition, the many Greek and international companies that we compete with in terms of the producer, and the consumers who have great access to information and prices". For his part, Christos Tsolkas noticed that in the last few months the prices of dairy products not only do not increase, but on the contrary a price decrease is recorded, according to the official data.

Spiros Pistikos

Resource: FoodReporter 15 April 2024 #1162, page 4.