It was necessary “stop the bleeding”. Members of Casino’s management, representatives of its future buyers and judicial administrators hammered home, Thursday, December 7, before the group’s unions, the extent to which the sale of hypermarkets and supermarkets was essential. So vital that this transaction is being carried out at a rapid pace.
According to our information, Rothschild and Co has in fact asked the suitors to submit their firm offers on Friday. An Intermarché-Auchan tandem and the German Lidl presented, on November 29, indicative proposals to take over a large part of the approximately 400 Casino brand stores put up for sale, while Leclerc had positioned itself on a few hypermarkets. The stated objective is to choose the best candidate(s) by December 20, the day when the first meeting of creditors called to vote on the distributor’s restructuring plan is held.
While waiting to receive these firm offers, the group’s management did not wish to specify to the group’s five representative organizations (FO, CGT, CFDT, UNSA, CFE-CGC) the content of the first round envelopes. A new meeting is scheduled for December 19, in order to reconnect with furious and worried social partners.
“The moment of truth”
During a day of strike on Tuesday, more than a thousand people gathered in front of the historic headquarters in Saint-Etienne but also in front of the Franprix head office in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), at the call of the unions, who fear “unprecedented social disruption in headquarters and logistics, as well as deterioration of working conditions in stores”.
Thursday, Denis Olivennes, the right-hand man in France of the Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky – main buyer of Casino with Fimalac (the holding company of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière) and the British fund Attestor –, as well as Philippe Palazzi, former Metro called to take over the general management of the distributor, reaffirmed the” commitment “ of the consortium to buy the group. “We are not financiers”they said, promising to offer the “better social conditions” to carry out the restructuring. Maintaining the Saint-Etienne head office remains” objective ” displayed, but everything will depend on the conditions of sale in hypermarkets and supermarkets, and in particular on the number of employees taken up by buyers.
“It was the moment of truth. Now we have to digest the blow”says Jean Pastor, CGT union delegate, at the end of the meeting which started in a rather “ stormy “. Impossible, according to him, that “people are not accompanied to the exit”, notably “because the buyers will not be able to take over all the warehouses if they already have them”nor all support function personnel.
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