Can elections boost Frances depressed consumers?
More than two thirds of French consumers expect their buying power to fall over the next few years, and spend on food dropped by 30 per cent last year alone, according a survey of 1,000 consumers by respected French magazine, LSA. The news threatens to dash hope among food and drink firms that France may be emerging from a depressed consumer climate, and highlights the upcoming presidential election as a pivotal moment. Several firms from dairy, water and biscuit group Danone to the brewer Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) have specifically singled out France as a problem country. S&N said last November that a “depressed consumer environment” across Western Europe as a whole dented its third quarter volumes. France is one of the group’s largest Western European markets, largely due to the Kronenbourg brand. Unemployment has hovered at around 10 per cent in France for the last three years, and is estimated to be double that among young people. Up to one in four were also jobless in some southe
