Matignon asks fuel distributors to “take their part”. Leading the way, the E. Leclerc and Carrefour brands announced this Tuesday that they would offer the sale of gasoline at cost price “every day” in their service stations from Friday. Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday the abandonment of the idea of selling at a loss, rejected by all distributors, and instructed his Prime Minister to bring together representatives of the sector.
Élisabeth Borne welcomed distributors, refiners and professional federations at the end of the day to “ensure the moderation of margins” and “ask to increase cost price operations, without excluding legislating if necessary”. The government has also announced “nearly 120,000 operations” at cost price “in 4,000 stations” until the end of the year. Casino, Cora and Intermarché will carry out two weekends per month, Système U and Auchan at least one weekend per month, detailed Matignon, who specifies that these commitments are in addition to the freezing by TotalEnergies of the price at 1.99 euros per liter in its 3,400 stations.
An “act of solidarity”
On gasoline “at cost”. This clearly means no profit and every day, not just on weekends as in our previous operations,” he stressed.
“It is a positive response to the President’s call ordering each player in the sector to offer discounts or lower prices,” he wrote, also evoking “an act of solidarity with all customers frightened by the increases and whose purchasing power is very impacted.” Michel-Edouard Leclerc specifies that “this Leclerc initiative, built to last, should be reassessed or adapted to take into account supply conditions and the expected involvement of oil companies”.
System U will work “by operations”
The Carrefour group announced to do the same a few hours later, before the start of the meeting in Matignon. “We are committed to selling fuel without margin, every day, from this Friday until the end of the year. This massive operation will cover all our hypermarkets,” the Carrefour group said on [son] history “.
The boss of the independent group Système U, Dominique Schelcher, confirmed on BFMTV-RMC that the brand would proceed through “operations”: “This cannot be a permanent cost price”, he specified regarding Système U, referring to “low margins, 2 cents on average per liter”.