As the rest of the world is struggling with a volatile raw materials market, Sweden is experiencing a never seen before battle for power in the super market aisles. And the battle grounds are kid favourite’s meatballs and tomato ketchup.
Little over two weeks ago, ICA (one of three major super market chains, the others being Coop and Axfood) declared open war on Procordia, the maker of Felix products, due to disagreements over the price of tomato ketchup. In a display of brute force, ICA took a wide variety of Felix tomato based products off their shelves as part of the negotiation process.
Yesterday, Coop followed suit, and stopped the classic Swedish Scan meatballs due to a similar negotiation breakdown. Pushed into a corner, Scan has sent out warnings to the market that it might have to cut down on personnel.
At the moment, there is no clear winner in the battles of the super market aisles, although doomsday prophets see a ketchup crisis on the horizon. It’s a great thing that the summer bar-b-que season is over; otherwise kids all over Sweden might be rioting due to ketchup shortage.
September 16, 2008 at 11:38 am
Well, that is serious crisis. The Swedes are, with 46,9 kilogram per capita consumption, the world’s leading ketchup consumers (the Irish are about to catch up with 46,6 kilos, but that is probably because so many Swedes are moving to Ireland). The question is now, if ICA has to make some layoffs too, as they are loosing one of their most valuable turnover sources.