Carrefour chief executive Alexandre Bompard has announced details of the company's five-year transformation plan, dubbed 'Carrefour 2022', which will see the group rationalise its headquarters, increase its food e-commerce turnover to €5 billion, and develop new partnerships in both Europe and Asia.
ESM will be featuring a 'live blog' as Bompard delivers his address at Carrefour headquarters, commencing at 9am CET, log on here to access.
Four Pillars
The Carrefour transformation plan is built around four pillars; the first of which is to deliver a 'simplified organisation', by 'reducing the weight and complexity' of its various headquarters around the globe.
In France, a corporate headquarters in Boulogne will be closed, and a project to build a new headquarters in the Esonne department will be shelved. The group will offer a voluntary redundancy plan to 2,400 employees at its head office in France.
In addition, Carrefour has said that it intends to be 'more open' to outside partners, announcing a new 'strategic cooperation' agreement with Tencent in China. Elsewhere, the group added that Tencent and Tonghui are set to become significant shareholders in Carrefour China.
Its second pillar involves productivity and competitiveness goals, with the group to implement a cost reduction plan of €2 billion on a full-year basis by 2020. It will also reduce the number of ex-DIA stores in its portfolio by 273, while providing for annual investments of €2 billion as of 2018.
Omnichannel Investment
Next, the group also plans to 'create an omnichannel universe', which includes investing in the 'attractiveness and efficiency' of its hypermarkets. Carrefour sees supermarkets and convenience as the 'growth formats' for the group, and plans to open at least 2,000 convenience stores over the next five years.
A significant investment of €2.8 billion will also be made in developing its digital and omnichannel operations, with the view to having €5 billion worth of food e-commerce sales per year by 2022.
Later this year, it plans to consolidate its digital offering around a single brand, Carrefour.fr.
Finally, the group intends to promote 'food quality'; increasing its range of premium private label lines, and reaching €5 billion worth of organic sales by 2022.
Food Transition
"I have a great ambition for Carrefour: To become the leader of the food transition by offering our customers, every day and everywhere, quality and trustworthy food at a reasonable price," Bompard said at the launch of the Carrefour 2022 strategy.
"To do this and return to a conquering dynamic, we must revamp our model, by simplifying our organisation, opening ourselves up to partnerships, improving our operational efficiency, investing in our growth formats, building an efficient omnichannel model and developing our fresh and organic products offer, notably under the Carrefour brand.
"This is the meaning of the 'Carrefour 2022' transformation plan that we are unveiling today, and that the Group and its employees will implement with ambition and determination.”
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
