Logistics and Transport Organization for the Food Retail: A Comparative Analysis between France and Germany

Abstract

Retailers’ logistics and transport strategy is an issue that has been largely ignored by researchers. On the basis of a detailed literature research and qualitative surveys with stakeholders of food supply chains conducted in France and Germany, we aim at understanding these strategies, and mapping out the key drivers for food retailers’ transportation, with a focus on the convergences and the divergences between the two countries. As far as transportation is concerned, this analysis of the decision making process is based on the assumption that “freight choice behaviour has not concentrated in a single agent but rather, in recent years, distributed jointly over multiple individuals and firms in a logistical chain” (Arunotayanun, 2009). Therefore, methodologically speaking, this research focuses on the understanding of the complexity of the supply chain, the interdependencies between the strategic decisions of the different actors involved in the same supply chain as well as their consequences for the transport strategies. We propose a categorization of the drivers for retailers’ logistics and transport organization, by distinguishing macro-, micro- and meso-economic drivers. Societal changes affecting consumer patterns and changes in the macroeconomic landscape are important drivers. But the internal strategies of the retailers (format, prices, assortment) and the meso-economic changes shaping new forms of collaborations and competition along the supply chain also play a major role. Important are the changes from a supplier to a retailer-controlled supply chain, due to consolidations at international level and the growing importance of private labels, as well as to the integration of the procurement and wholesale within the big retailers. We illustrate the different types of drivers for the food retail in France and Germany. The major interest is to show and compare the complexity of the drivers for transportation in the food retail in both countries.