The weight of the Casino group in distribution in France has been reduced by drops in recent years. Back in March, Casino fell again with a loss of 0.9 market share points in one year according to Kantar. The group falls for the first time below 6% market share (5.9% precisely) and is now surpassed by Lidl (7.9%), Auchan (9%), System U (11.9%), Les Mousquetaires (15.9%), the Carrefour group (20.4%) and E.Leclerc (22.7%).
Casino has continued to descend in the hierarchy of the main French distributors for several years. As a reminder, in 2018, the group still claimed more than 11% market share, making it the fourth group in France. Now it is only the 7th.
To be sure, Casino has greatly reduced the size of its store network during the period by selling stores at a loss to competing groups or outright an entire brand, such as the sale to Aldi of 545 Leader Price stores in 2020.
But Casino’s decline has continued ever since. Month after month the decline continues. In detail, in March, Casino supermarkets lost 0.1 point (1.4%), the same as Monoprix (1.5%) and convenience stores (0.6%). But it is the flagship Casino Hyper Frais (ex-Géant) that registered the strongest fall with 0.7 points (1.3%). The banner is suffering from the work caused by the gradual transformation of the 61 stores into Hyper Fresh stores.
Casino wants to restore its price image
But the casino also seems to suffer from a bad price image among consumers. An image that the group has been working on for several months. First by freezing the prices of 550 products in September 2022 (that is, more than its smaller competitors) or by announcing price reductions in December (admittedly limited) and this in the midst of runaway inflation. And above all multiplying from the end of 2021 the spectacular discounts on fuel vouchers. Forceful operations that perhaps are to the detriment of the lowest prices.
It is in this context that the group announced that Tina Schuler, who served as general manager of the Casino brands and member of the group’s executive committee, was leaving her position on Wednesday, according to a press release on Wednesday that confirms information from specialized media. . LSAs.
She is replaced by Magali Daubinet-Salen, until now an assistant to Tina Schuler, a veteran of the group who joined Casino in 2007 as head of management control for a sector, before becoming “director of financial affairs for various Casino Distribution entities France”. specifies the group.
In addition to the commercial setbacks, the distributor’s performance has been interrupted in recent months on the Stock Market, while the markets question the ability of the companies controlled by the general director of the Casino Jean-Charles Naouri to assume important debt repayment terms
In this context, Casino, which at the end of 2022 employed 200,000 people worldwide, including a large part in France, entered into talks with Teract with a view to a possible merger. This group of garden center brands (Jardiland, Gamm Vert, Delbard) is the majority shareholder of InVivo, a union of 188 French agricultural cooperatives and an agribusiness giant in Europe.
Source: BFM TV
