Biocoop: 300 stores plus in France

The number of Biocoop stores in France continues to rise; they now total 313. Company headquarters is anticipating 30 new openings this year. The turnover of all Biocoop stores was 390 million euros in 2008, which was an increase of 27 % compared with the year before. Organic-Market.Info visited an attractive organic supermarket with 300 m² of retail space that was opened in August 2008 in the east of Paris. It is called “Le retour à la terre”.

(Picture: Temptingly wide variety of cheeses)
“We are very pleased with the launch of our store,” says Catherine Chalom, the owner of the new organic supermarket near the well known cemetery Père Lachaise. The clearly laid out store is already attracting over 300 customers a day, who can avail themselves of the comprehensive food range. It stocks 8,000 articles and has much more than just food and natural cosmetics on sale – you can also buy environmentally friendly paper and office materials (picture: writing pads by the German manufacturer Memo), natural textiles like T-shirts, washable nappies, towels, Auro paints, pet food and garden equipment.

The Avenue Philippe Auguste is a busy main road and hardly any customers come on foot, because there are few other shops nearby. The whole area consists mainly of offices and houses, but the store is easily spotted by passing motorists on account of its approximately 20 m wide windows (picture). Mrs Chalom, the 48-year-old newcomer to the business, who used to work in the car industry, searched for over a year for a suitable site until she found what she wanted here, in premises previously occupied by a car dealer. She now employs 14 people in her new Biocoop supermarket.

The biggest fill-your-own facility in Paris (picture) means that customers can help themselves to more than 100 products from sugar and flour, cereals, rice, beans, cornflakes and other flakes to dried fruit and nuts. Moreover, customers get lower prices, and it is environmentally friendly because less packaging is involved. “We often buy the goods by the 25 kg sack, which is of course cheaper than if they were packaged. Our customers fill a paper bag with as much as they want,” explains 23-year-old David van der Vlist, the managing director’s son (in the picture below, holding the Biocoop customer magazine Consom’action). This sales method saves 10 % - 30 %, depending on product. “By helping myself to products, I can buy organic goods for the price of conventional goods in the supermarkets,” says one customer, delighted with the five bags she has just filled.

As a marketing strategy, Biocoop advertises 50 articles at a time at reduced prices for 6 months. The campaign is called “La Bio, je peux” (“Organics, yes I can”) and it means, of course, that organics are for everyone. About 80 % of the product range is supplied by the Biocoop wholesale business in St. Geneviève de Bois in the south of Paris, and 20 % comes direct from various, mostly regional, suppliers. The store does not advertise regularly via flyers. However, in the early days, there were a number of articles on the new organic supermarket in Paris newspapers and magazines. Since last December, customers have been invited once a month to an evening event near the store. At these well attended events – between 50 and 150 people come along – they show films on the environment or have talks followed by a discussion.

A special feature is the super smart fruit and vegetable department (picture): they produce some of the items themselves. For some years now, the family Chalom has run an Ecocert-controlled orchard with 1.7 ha in Normandy. They are also members of the farmers’ association Nature & Progrès. “We mostly drive there at the weekend with the whole family,” says David, one of four brothers and sisters. There they can return to the soil in the literal sense of the word. “We concentrate on old varieties of apples and pears, but we also grow raspberries, blackcurrants, elderberries and walnuts to sell in the shop. They grow vegetables for their own family, and they keep bees too that help to pollinate the fruit trees and bushes. They recently acquired another 4.5 ha of land in order to expand fruit growing.

The share of the Biocoop network in the total organic market in France is 16 %. Half of retail space in the specialist trade (49 %) is occupied by Biocoop stores. 9,000 articles are listed and are available from any one of the four Biocoop wholesalers. The network employs a total of 2,800 people. The wholefood stores in the network are operated by retail businesses that are, however, tied by contract to Biocoop that determines their rights and obligations. The company aims are stated in a charter defining the objectives in terms of transparency, Fair Trade, fair producer prices and sustainable organic agriculture, and it describes the spirit of cooperation in the network.

The origins of the network go back to the purchasing organizations of the 1970s. It was launched in 1986, and a common charter was signed for the first time. The guidelines issued in 1993 regulate the internal relations between cooperatives and other kinds of business within Biocoop. In 2002, new statutes were produced and the members became shareholders of the new “Société Anonyme Coopérative”- a cooperative joint stock company. In 2007, wholesale facilities were established to the south of Paris. In 2008, the number of Biocoop stores in France passed the 300 mark. (Picture on left: Natural paints in the Biocoop store “Le retour à la terre”)

High-efficiency regional marketing is made possible by the unique organization of the network: the Biocoop network of four regional wholesalers supplies the stores with 70 % of their goods, apart from local products like bakery goods, meat and vegetables. The Biocoop wholesalers stock more than 5,000 food articles and 1,800 articles in natural cosmetics and household items supplied by over 500 companies.

Biocoop’s wholesale businesses in the west of France near Rennes (Brittany), the south east in Cavaillon, the south west at Agen and another one covering the north and east of France have a total warehouse capacity of 22,600 m². Two more specialized wholesalers collaborate with Biocoop: Biolidis in Toulouse, supplying books, and Ecodis near Vannes supplying washing powders and cleaning materials (picture below). Work groups, consisting of representatives of the stores, decide which products should be listed by Biocoop and select the products bearing in mind the Biocoop charter. (Picture on right: Natural cosmetics department at Le retour à la terre)

Biocoop is committed to supporting Fair Trade to bring about contact between producers and consumers. Fair rewards for producers and good working conditions are key issues in their collaboration with importers and certification organizations. Coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, rice, quinoa and exotic fruits are among the Fair Trade products that are sold in Biocoop stores. In 2001, Biocoop was the first company to sell fair trade organic bananas, and since 2004 Biocoop has belonged to the Fair Trade umbrella organization (Plateforme pour le Commerce Equitable) that represents Fair Trade in the public domain and political bodies. Biocoop also promotes a cooperative approach to other ecologically important issues. It is the co-founder of the eco-electricity supplier Enercoop that is committed to supporting renewable energy. (Picture on left: Washing powders and cleaning materials at Le retour à la terre)

Tip: www.leretouralaterre.fr and www.biocoop.fr