Monoprix, ‘the supermarket of the French bourgeoisie’, is targeting Belgium in search of 1.2 billion

The French urban supermarket chain Monoprix opens its first store in our country. The chain wants to introduce three store formats to our market, starting with the Monoprix supermarket in Waterloo. “Et pour les Flamands la même chose You may not think it is politically correct, but this can work commercially,” says retail expert Gino Van Ossel.

Anyone who has ever looked for a supermarket in Paris or other French cities will probably have come across a Monoprix. The chain has more than 530 stores in France, 85 percent of which are located in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. “The typical supermarket for the French Bourgeoisie”, summarizes Pierre-Alexandre Billiet, retail expert at Gondola, Monoprix together in one sentence. The food offering is more focused on quality and strong private labels, more than on competitive prices. But the range of non-food in the form of decoration and clothing is also special.

“It is not entirely surprising that Monoprix is ​​entering our market,” says Gino Van Ossel, retail professor at Vlerick Business School. “Monoprix is ​​part of the French retail group Casino. It is loss-making, but within that group Monoprix is ​​a nugget of gold. It therefore has the freedom to grow and generate more turnover. In concrete terms, it wants to evolve from 5 billion euros in turnover to 6.2 billion euros by 2028. It would therefore like to sniff out the Belgian market to see whether its store concepts are successful.” In addition to Monoprix, it will also open stores under the Monop’ and Monoprix Maison brands.

Can a supermarket that, in addition to food, also includes clothing and decoration in its store concept, still work at a time when physical stores find it difficult to compete with web shops with their offerings? Van Ossel thinks so. “If you sell the right products, in addition to a full range of food, it can certainly generate additional turnover. Look at Hema, for example. That is not a one-on-one comparison, but that concept also successfully combines the basics of clothing with a limited food offering.”

Et pour les Flamands la même chose?

To enable higher turnover, Monoxprix wants to open 80 new stores by 2028, L’Echo knows. Gondola’s experts expect several dozen Monoprix stores to our country, but only in French-speaking Belgium. But Gino Van Ossel does not want to rule out that Monoprix will also try it in Flanders.

“If you look at successful foreign expansions such as those of Albert Heijn, Kruidvat, Hema and Decathlon, they have one thing in common: the fact that they were able to expand their market with little or no adjustments to their formula. Et pour les Flamands la même chose you may not find it politically correct, but commercially this can work. With its unique character, Monoprix could well have sufficient distinctiveness to be successful in Flanders.”

“Monoprix is ​​also a premium supermarket,” Van Ossel continues. “And also look at the location they chose, Waterloo. The purchasing power in that city is more comparable to that in a Flemish city such as Leuven than Walloon cities such as Liège or Charleroi. If Waterloo is the first location for this store concept in our country, it can just as easily succeed in cities such as Woluwe or Uccle.”

Challenging Flanders

Nevertheless, Van Ossel acknowledges that there are indeed factors that make expansion to our part of the country difficult. “There is certainly a barrier for a French supermarket chain to come to Flanders. Products must have different packaging with Dutch inscriptions. That means a considerable cost to be active in a fairly small region.”

Decathlon is an example of a French retailer that is successful across national and language borders, but there are also less positive stories, Van Ossel emphasizes. “For example, look at the frozen food chain Picard, which also wanted to expand in Flanders and Wallonia.” When Picard opened its first Belgian stores in 2012, it had the ambition to eventually have 60 stores in our country. It closed its Flemish stores in 2015 and only has 15 supermarkets in Wallonia and Brussels.

It is known that the Flemish market is saturated when it comes to supermarkets. The Dutch Last year, the Jumbo chain abandoned its ambition to have a hundred Belgian stores. The city – Monoprix’s habitat – is also busy. The French chain would have to compete with Carrefour, Albert Heijn and Delhaize, among others, with its premium concept. In addition, it was announced this week that Colruyt Group is also focusing more on cities with the new Okay Compact concept. Although Van Ossel emphasizes that these stores tend to be smaller and focused on low prices.

Persistence pays off

A striking aspect of the arrival of Monoprix is ​​that the parent company Casino is not harboring Belgian ambitions for the first time. In 2018, it opened two small neighborhood supermarkets in Brussels under the name Franprix. That is a different chain, with about 900 stores in France. Last year the stores disappeared from Brussels because they were unprofitable due to high costs and stiff competition.

But that past apparently does not prevent the group from trying again immediately, Pierre-Alexandre Billiet also notes. “In retail it is always the persistent ones who win. It simply takes time to get to know a new market properly. Monoprix, Monop’ and Monoprix Maison are a new test. Belgium is seen as a country with high purchasing power and that makes us so lucrative. Where a country like the Netherlands is focused on low prices, and quality is only secondary.”