What comes of Alexandre Bompard’s first five-year term at Carrefour? At the bottom, an economic activity that is recovering, a dynamic in Brazil, a certain popularity; on the obverse, stock market price still depressed, operations that have not been carried out and syndicates reassembled.
On Tuesday in Massy (Essonne), at the distributor’s headquarters, Alexandre Bompard will have to present his flight plan for Carrefour and its 320,000 employees around the world, for the next five years. This, in a particularly volatile context due to high inflation.
Arrived at the head of Carrefour in mid-2017, the former president of Europe 1 (2008-2010) and head of Fnac (2011-2017) had then encountered a great challenge: to get a giant with a faltering economy back on its feet . model., very present in the hypermarket format while consumers increasingly turn their backs on it.
Model Redesign
He had set himself the goal of making Carrefour “the world leader in the food transition for all”, “redesigning” its model “at the service of better nutrition, flavor and quality food at an affordable price for all”.
“The size of the group is more modest” than when it arrived: 81,000 million euros in annual turnover, “that is 10% less. But at higher profits, 10% more,” the consumer specialist commented on his blog this Friday. Oliver. Dauvers, who believes that the trade balance is also positive, with “the erosion of market share” in France “finally stopped”.
For his part, the Finance Inspector (promoted by Cyrano-de-Bergerac from Ena), who came to the head of the group with a solid reputation in terms of strategic mergers after having achieved the merger of Fnac and Darty, suffered two major disappointments in this area.
In 2021, there was first the Canadian group Couche-Tard, the victim of a French government veto, then aborted discussions with Auchan, the food brand in the Mulliez galaxy. In 2018, it was with Casino that the hypothesis of a rapprochement had made pschitt.
There is no problem, he insists, explaining that Carrefour can continue to walk alone, in a sector where everyone predicts consolidation.
to south america
On the social front, the group’s financial documentation shows a double movement: the workforce decreases in Europe, but expands in South America.
At the end of 2016, Carrefour indicated that it had 218,639 employees in Europe, 98,370 in America and 67,142 in Asia. Five years later, European employees have fallen to 191,707, or -12.3%.
In Asia, the sale of its activities in China in 2019 and in Taiwan – announced in mid-2022 – will soon reduce the figure to zero.
In America, on the other hand, Carrefour has increased its workforce by more than 17% in five years (115,310 employees at the end of 2021) and activity on the continent has increased even more with the acquisition completed in mid-2022 of Grupo Big, number 3 in Brazil where Carrefour was already the leader. The operation allows the group to own “more than a quarter of the local market.” He has big ambitions in Latin America.
Less attractive prospects in France
In France, the picture looks less attractive. The unions accuse Alexandre Bompard of being the architect, with the transition of many companies to lease management, of a large plan to “outsource stores” with strong social consequences.
Carrefour claims to be “often one of the main private employers in the countries” where it is established, citing France, Brazil, Argentina and Italy.
This social weight gives the group and its boss an influential status in France, as does its place in the CAC 40, although the stock price is still quite low, around 16 euros. “Bompard’s magic didn’t work there,” says Olivier Dauvers.
This does not suit the shareholders of the group, in particular the first of them, the Moulin family, owner of Galeries Lafayette.
The head of the luxury giant LVMH Bernard Arnault, who came to the distributor’s capital to everyone’s surprise in March 2007, left in August 2021.
Source: BFM TV
