In 2018, a spontaneous boycott movement launched on social networks targets three brands perceived as symbols of dear life in Morocco. Among them, Centrale Danone, a subsidiary of the French agrifood giant, suffered the anger of consumers. Turnover in free fall, deceased image and withdrawal of the scholarship … Back on a crisis that has marked the spirits.
The story begins discreetly, almost anonymously, on Facebook. A few messages call on Moroccans to boycott three brands accused of practicing excessive prices: the fuel of Afriquia stations, Sidi Ali mineral water, and Danone Centrale daunte products. One of the slogans shared on the networks summarizes the state of mind of the initiators: “ The boycott is stronger than the demonstration. It is not a punctual act, it is a daily resistance ».
Very quickly, the movement grows. According to several surveys relayed at the time, 57 % of informed Moroccans from the boycott claim to have stopped buying at least one of the three brands concerned. At the top of this peaceful sling, the middle class, strangled by the high cost of life and increasingly frustrated in the face of the immobility of the authorities.
At that time, Morocco represents 45 % of the African turnover of the Danone group. A strategic market. But for the economist Abdelghani Youmni, this popular reaction is the symptom of deeper discomfort : « The Moroccan middle class, which has taken sixteen years to build itself, is in the process of crumbling. It loses foot because of the cost of living, credit, education, transport, health … The Moroccan economy creates wealth, but outside Moroccans ».
Sales in free fall, deleted jobs, ecorned image
In May 2018, after a month of silence, the director general of Centrale Danone in Morocco, Didier Lamblin, speaks on Atlantic Radio, a private Moroccan station. The tone is serious: ” The impact is significant on our sales, on our market share. We are forced to take regrettable measures: suspend part of the volumes collected from our 120,000 breeders ».
The consequences are immediate: hundreds of dismissed workers, destabilized milk cooperatives, and anger that still rises from a notch. In early June, company employees demonstrate in front of the Parliament in Rabat: ” The government is responsible. It is not up to employees to pay the consequences of the cost of living “Scandes a protester.
Faced with the crisis, Danone tries a reconquest operation. In September, the brand announced that it now sells the liter of milk at cost price, an unprecedented measure. But nothing helps: sales continue to fall. In total, Danone will accuse a loss of 178 million euros in turnover compared to the previous year.
A few months later, Emmanuel Faber, CEO of the group, returns to this striking episode: ” We sold our milk at the same price as our competitors. But Centrale Danone was perceived as close to the royal family and the Moroccan elite. It facilitated his boycott. »
Danone will then launch a range of “solidarity” products at low prices, then will be discreet. In 2020, Centrale Danone retired from the Casablanca Stock Exchange. The financial results of the subsidiary are no longer public.