Picard marketing strategy

Résumé du document

The creation of Picard in France coincides with the beginning of frozen food in the USA but the technology in France was far from being as advanced. Therefore, in 1906, Raymond Picard created “les Glacières de Fontainebleau”, begun by manufacturing and by delivering blocks of ice which allowed to keep food and drinks for the cool in the iceboxes of cafes, restaurants and private individuals.

In 1962 “les Glacières de Fontainebleau” became « les Établissements Picard ». This change translated the evolution of the activity with the wholesale of basic frozen products, such as minced beef and spinach. But besides the frozen products, Picard also marketed freezers.

In 1973, Armand Decelle acquired the company to Fernand Picard and from that moment, it was the real birth of Picard. In this time, the company counted a dozen persons and realized a 5 million franc turnover (760 000 €) with 5 delivery vans. The following year, Armand Decelle opened the first store "freezer center ", Rome Street in Paris which proposed then 400 products.

Extraits

[...] They are also still innovating with new products like with the sorbet in tub: innovation on the packaging but maybe more expensive than normal pots (100ml More than 40 varieties of vegetables fruits and fruit salads sea products entries, nearly 200 cooked dishes pastry makings and more than 200 frozen ices and desserts are available. Picard offers the widest and the deepest range of the French market. Their products come from the whole planet depending on what it is. For example, white asparagus come from China and the green ones from Chili, Indian products come from United Kingdom. [...]

[...] Picard takes really care of the food security. They are transparent regarding the traceability of any of their products. The other prerogative of Picard is the taste quality of their products. They want the customers to keep loyal with them. FINANCIAL OBJECTIVES The financial objective of Picard is to keep going this way and doing profits. Until now the recipe is effective, as we can see the turnover keep increasing, but with the financial crisis, we can think that Picard will revise his forecast. [...]

[...] Another way of Picard distribution is the delivery service which from 20 of purchase and with a delivery participation of 5 in France and of 6 in Brussels and Luxembourg, Picard delivers in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg. This is a quality service that Picard makes available to its consumers and which will be established with the new shops. It is possible to make request on the website or by phone. This goes with the possibility to buy on Internet without moving or carrying bags. [...]

[...] But in 2001, Carrefour sells its participation to a group of investors who, associated with the Decelle's family and with the management, set up a leveraged buy out. This sale was about 624 million euro. In December 2004, capital owners since 2001 gave up their participations to a new group of investors led by B.C. Partners. In 2007, Picard opens its 700th store. The billion euro of turnover is reached. Today Picard owns 730 stores in France. So we can see that Picard is in a healthy and favorable financial situation. [...]

[...] In every case, Picard cannot completely break its brand image which is the quality. Now, the quality has a price. Thus even if Picard lowers its price rates, it was not be made to the detriment of the image of the brand. We can thus end by saying that Picard has to stay in the same valuable order, but that it has to adapt them to the local clientele. That is Picard has to keep prices in the high average to keep this quality brand image and so reassure the clientele on what it buys. [...]