A grocery store with everyday products; local services such as laundry, post office, train ticket reservation, photo booth or parcels; a snack area and a free access room allowing residents to make appointments with a beautician or an osteopath! This is the winning quartet of Comptoir de campagne, a network of grocery stores in rural areas created in 2016 by Virginie Hills. “This addition of economic models is the strength of our concept, explains this former executive in the agri-food sector. From the start, I wanted to franchise the model with the desire to revitalize the villages which no longer have local shops.”
“The desire to get involved locally is decisive”
The preparation phase took six years and relied on eleven pilot grocery stores already in operation in the western part of France. “Becoming a franchisor is another profession, it cannot be improvised. You had to model the concept, finance its engineering, organize the supply system and structure the operation of the stores”, continues the founder.
Supported by the firm Franchise Management, the network was gradually put in place before launching its first three units at the end of 2022 in the Loire, the Rhône and the Drôme. Training, know-how, assistance, management software: all the tools and services that make up the life of a brand are now ready. To access it, candidates must plan an investment of 100,000 euros, including 25,000 euros of personal contribution and, of course, have a good sense of business. “The desire to get involved locally is also decisive,” says Virginie Hills, who specifies that royalties – 5.5% of turnover – are the network’s only source of remuneration.
Regarding locations, Comptoir de campagne targets towns with more than 800 souls, with a catchment area of 2,000 inhabitants. The pitches must have a surface area of at least 150 m2 and there must be no competing businesses in the village. In each territory (Loire, Drôme, Rhône, etc.), a supplier takes care of listing local products which are then purchased by the stores. One of them obtains supplies from around fifty suppliers and offers approximately 1,100 product references (fresh, dry, hygiene/maintenance, etc.). If it meets all these conditions, a shop achieves on average between 200,000 to 250,000 euros in turnover per year and provides a net monthly remuneration of 2,000 euros to its boss. In the coming months, Comptoir de Campagne intends to develop at the rate of about fifteen openings per year in Occitania, Ile-de-France and then throughout the territory. Good news for the villages of France.
An article from the Franchise special issue of L’Express. On newsstands March 16, 2023