Edouard Leclerc was just 23 when he opened his first cut-price grocery shop in Brittany in 1949. Threatened by the discounting fervour exhibited by their seminary-educated rival, local shopkeepers prevailed on suppliers to boycott him. Yet Mr Leclerc had the last laugh when the government took his side.

The Breton boycott was just the start of Mr Leclerc's battles against vested interests as he oversaw the creation of a vast federation of independent hypermarkets trading under the E. Leclerc banner. His serial combativeness on behalf of consumers prompted the writer John Ardagh to refer to him "one of the truly amazing figures of postwar France".