The Carrefour group is preparing to part with almost 1,000 employees in France. Its CEO, Alexandre Bompard, announced it during the presentation of the distributor’s strategic plan last November: it will reorganize its European headquarters in order to make them more efficient. “Carrefour needs a shock of simplification, then explained the CEO. Anything that can be shared will be. We don’t need teams in each country for tech, data or even brand management… We need to create centers of expertise. […] This will result in significant staff reductions in our headquarters”.
In France, these workforce reductions are now known. They were presented this Monday morning to the social partners. “On this occasion, Carrefour confirmed that a maximum number of 979 departures would be likely to take place within the framework of the Collective Contractual Termination currently being negotiated with the social partners, explains the group. These departures can only take place on a strictly voluntary basis, and within the framework of quality social support”.
Employees working in stores and warehouses are not affected. This reorganization will also lead to job cuts in other European countries where Carrefour is present, but the group has not yet announced the details.
Carrefour will also pool its purchases from suppliers with its various European subsidiaries. All of this reorganization will contribute to the savings plan announced by Carrefour in November. By 2026, the retailer expects to make an additional 4 billion in savings. Alexandre Bompard believes that Carrefour still had additional costs, at the level of its seats, compared to its competitors. In France, Carrefour’s competitors, Leclerc, Intermarché and Système U, are independent groups whose cost structure is much lighter.