It was one of the highlights of the mobilization against the high cost of living: seven heads of distribution groups, sitting side by side, in front of the prefect, in front of the elected officials and, for the first time, the members of the collective behind the initiative. Demonstrations against the cost of living on this island in the Antilles. Gathered under the auspices of the local authority of Martinique, on Thursday, September 26, these interlocutors, around thirty, had a common objective: to reach an agreement to lower the prices of food products, which are 40% more expensive in this department than in mainland France, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee).
An expression of discomfort floated on the faces of the business leaders, unaccustomed to such a collegial communication exercise in front of the cameras. Especially because, on an island hit, for two months, by strong tensions caused by the consequences of the inflation crisis, these large owners of supermarket networks appear as accused.
Finally, Patrick Fabre took the step, acknowledging the problem but refusing to take the blame: “Yes, the prices of food products in Martinique are excessively high. The difference with respect to the continent is enormouslamented the general director of the CréO group. This is not acceptable. » His logistics and temporary employment company, founded in 1992, opened the first Leader Price supermarket in Fort-de-France two years later and currently has a network of around forty stores spread across seven brands in the Antilles, Guyana and the Meeting. In Martinique, the group has seventeen discount stores. “Lowering prices is our DNA”Mr. Fabre argued.
Family businesses
“Our markets are narrow: we have important structural limitations”stressed, a few minutes later, Stéphane Hayot, general director of the Bernard Hayot group (GBH), leader of the distribution market in Martinique and in several overseas regions and territories, and whose name is pronounced “Hayotte” in the Antilles. “Our group was born in Martinique. “My father opened his first business in 1960: he had three employees”said the 56-year-old manager, adding that the company, which today employs more than 15,000 people in nineteen countries and territories on five continents, was, in its beginnings, only“a small broiler farm”.
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