[Interview] Geoffroy Gersdorff (Carrefour Belgium): “Too early for profit”

Carrefour Belgium is on the right track but will not yet be profitable this year, CEO Geoffroy Gersdorff expects. A franchising of hypermarkets is not on the cards, nor is a takeover of Louis Delhaize.

Successful discounts

Earlier this week, Carrefour released strong quarterly figures, with Belgium moving from problem child to being the fastest grower within the group. An excellent moment to ask the CEO for some clarifications: the first thing he wants to stress is that the good results are certainly not only due to Carrefour being able to benefit from the turmoil at Delhaize. “Even before the problems at Delhaize began, the trend was good: the first quarter was also positive. Importantly in this inflationary period is that we see that our volumes are also rising, in all three of our formats. Hypermarkets are rising the most in market share of all banners in Belgium. This is an important signal: customers increasingly understand our raison d’être and our commercial dynamics respond to their issues, including purchasing power.”