Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba did not mince words on Friday when rating the French distributor on Twitter.
The man who grieved a year ago “over the loss of employment in Russia” [étaient] more important than the deaths in Ukraine” he now assures that he will discuss the Auchan case with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna.
• What is Auchan blamed for?
According to an investigation published by the newspaper Le Monde in collaboration with the investigation site The Insider and the NGO Bellingcat, a collection of products destined for the Russian army, with a total value of 2 million rubles (about 25,000 euros), would have been organized within the local branch of Auchan in Russia.
The alleged facts date back to March 15, 2022, almost a month after the start of the conflict in Ukraine. On that date, a certain Natalya Z., the management controller of the French distribution group in Russia, sent a list of products in an Excel table to about twenty employees of Auchan stores located in the St. Petersburg region.
This list includes wool socks in size 43 or 44, gas cooking cartridges, axes, nails, canned pots and cigarette packs. A list that seems to correspond more to supplies and equipment for the army than to humanitarian aid for the civilian population.
Therefore, five stores take over their stocks to provide these goods worth 2 million rubles (25,000 euros) free of charge. The cargo was picked up a week later in front of a sixth store, according to Alekseï R., a former Auchan employee in Russia who witnessed the scene. Present at the collection point, the management controller reportedly told the former employee that “these boxes were destined for the ‘special operation,'” the name given by the Russian government to the war being waged in Ukraine.
In addition, the investigation reveals that many collections and containers managed by local associations would be supplied by Auchan stores. Organizations such as an NGO called “People close” that exposes images of deliveries of products and supplies on the Ukrainian front in the Donbass region to Russian soldiers on its Telegram account.
The French distributor claims to have been “extremely surprised” by allegations of support from the Russian military.
If Auchan does not question the reality of the request, it gives a version significantly different from the one presented in the survey.
“In March 2022, we received a request from the Saint-Pétersboug city hall, as we had already received several before the war and as we received in many municipalities around the world to help the homeless, for example, explains t-on to BFM Business on the management side. We prepared the order that was paid to us at the price, without reduction. It was not likely to raise doubts among our teams.
Could the nature of the products ordered have alerted the sales teams?
Auchan says no.
Finally, as for the element that would link the order to the Russian army, namely the statement of the managing controller Natalya Z. according to which the delivery was intended for the special operation, here again the management refutes the information.
“We do not finance or participate voluntarily and actively in any collection destined for the Russian forces,” the address finally wishes to remember.
In addition to the Ukrainian foreign minister’s statement, the distributor’s local management said they were “shocked by the information published.”
In a message posted this Friday on Facebook, Auchan Ukraine explains that it “asked for explanations from the French office”
“Auchan Ukraine has provided assistance to Ukrainians for more than 60 million hryvnias,” or 1.5 million euros, since the start of the war, the affiliate said in a message sent to AFP.
Present in Russia since 2002, the fifth French retailer has 232 stores there with a turnover of 3.2 billion euros before the war in Ukraine and 30,000 employees. Although the group was not at its best in the country before the start of the conflict, Russian activity still represented close to 10% of the group’s total turnover.
Already arrested last March by the president of Ukraine Before the French Parliament, the Auchan group had then estimated that “leaving would be imaginable on an economic level but not from a human point of view”.
According to Yale University, which conducts a daily census of multinationals present in Russia, Auchan is one of the 23 large French companies that have not stopped their activity in Russia. In this list we find in particular Bonduelle, Etam, Faurecia, Valéo, Vinci, Lactalis, Bic, Lacoste, Clarins or even Camille Albane.
But the University study specifies that many French companies are still present in the territory but have only suspended investments or reduced their activity. This is the case of Yves Rocher, Blablacar, Accor, the Seb group or even Sanofi.
According to a study by a Swiss university, of the 1,284 foreign companies still present in Russia at the end of 2022, 5.6% would be French, that is, about 70.
German companies continue to have the strongest presence in Russia with 19.5% of listed multinationals ahead of Chinese (16.4%), American (12.4%), Japanese (7%), Italian (6.3%), the British (5.8%) and finally the French (5.6%).
Source: BFM TV
