The 'Drive' channel continues to go from strength to strength in France, and will reach €9.2 billion in sales this year, a leading industry analyst has said.
This would be a 35% increase on the €6.8 billion worth of sales the channel reported in 2019, reflecting increased consumer adoption of the channel as a result of COVID-19-related lockdowns.
Steady Growth
Olivier Dauvers was commenting ahead of the annual 'Ateliers du Drive' event, taking place in France this week, organised by Éditions Dauvers alongside trade publication Linéaires.
The Drive channel saw €3.7 billion in sales in 2013, according to Dauvers, and this has steadily grown each year since, to €4.3 billion in 2014, €4.9 billion in 2015, €5.4 billion in 2016, €5.9 billion in 2017, €6.4 billion in 2018 and €6.8 billion last year.
E.Leclerc remains the pace setter in the Drive channel, and is on track to account for 48% of the market by the end of this year, with projected sales of €4.41 billion, according to Dauvers.
The retailer posted sales of €3.27 billion from its Drive operations last year, up from €3.07 billion in 2018.
Intermarché looks also set to benefit from increased consumer adoption of Drive, with the retailer set to record more than €1 billion in sales through the channel this year, Dauvers estimates.
Market Share
According to the latest market share data from Kantar, E. Leclerc's strong position as market leader in France has been boosted by its Drive presence.
The retailer saw its market share increase by 0.6 percentage points in the P9 period (10 August to 6 September), to 22.7%
According to Kantar, online/e-commerce now accounts for 7.7% of the total grocery market in France, and has recruited an additional 1.2 million households.
The Ateliers du Drive event takes place in Paris on 29 September, and will feature presentations from leading representatives from Intermarché, Monoprix and Courses U Lyon.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
