Discount supermarket chain Lidl are taking all Coca-Cola products off of its shelves in Germany, according to local media reports, because of a price war which has gathered pace.
Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta and other popular soft drinks were on Monday already delisted in some branches of Lidl, Die Welt and De Local newspapers reported.
“We were unable to agree on a marketing strategy with Lidl,” a spokesman from Coca-Cola Deutschland told delocal.de, meaning it will lose business in all of Lidl's 3,000 stores in Germany.
As part of a price war with rival Aldi, Lidl had slashed the price of a 1.25 litter bottle of coke by 10c before the decision was made to remove all products from its stores. Coca-Cola reportedly refused to drop its wholesale price in line with the price cut.
Planet Retail's Matthias Queck said that Lidl's decision to remove Coca-Cola products 'is probably a power play', and that they could return to the shelves in just a few weeks.
German consumers, always price-conscious, are now especially demanding, and Lidl figures it can make up for the loss of one of the world's top brands by selling cheaper alternatives, such as Freeway cola. Lidl will continue to stock Pepsi, having negotiated rock-bottom prices with the U.S. producer.
Bloomberg believe that "the retailer's (Lidl) decision to eliminate Coca-Cola from its shelves may point to a not-so-distant future, in which branding commodity products such as soft drinks will become obsolete and private labels will reign supreme."
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
