The Carrefour group has indicated that until “979 departures are likely to occur” at its headquarters in France, “excluding stores and warehouses”and on “the basis of strict voluntary service”in a message to Agence France-Presse on Monday June 26 on the sidelines of a CSE – staff representative body. “These departures will only concern head office employees, excluding those in stores or warehouses”specifies Carrefour which has offices in Mondeville (Calvados), Massy and Evry (Essonne).
These departures “can only intervene on a strictly voluntary basis, and within the framework of quality social support”, still assures the distributor. In mid-June, the CFDT had indicated that “the first departures on a voluntary basis could take place at the end of August, or even well before for employees producing a permanent contract abroad”.
This headcount reduction target was known, and the specialized media The letter a revealed at the end of May that“a thousand posts” were “targeted on the sole scope of the group in France”.
€4 billion “cost savings” plan
This reorganization is part of the strategic plan for 2026 concocted for the distributor by its CEO Alexandre Bompard. In November 2022, the latter announced a new plan for“cost savings” of 4 billion euros, notably through “significant staff reductions in each” European seats.
The CEO of the group did not then give any indication of the extent of these reductions, simply indicating that“in Europe, there is enormous pooling potential to be exploited” and “everything that needs to be pooled in our organization will be”. Staff reductions at European level are not yet known.
Carrefour achieved in 2022 a turnover up by 16% to 90.8 billion euros, and a net profit jumping to 1.35 billion euros, or 26% better than the previous year. It is due to publish its financial results for the first half of 2023 on July 26.