Colruyt Group has appointed Christophe Garcia, former managing director of Match and Smatch in Belgium, as Managing Director for its operations in France as his predecessor, Bart De Schutter, is retiring.
Experienced manager
The 51-year-old French national is an experienced retail manager: he was regional director of supermarkets at Auchan before joining the Louis Delhaize group. In 2009, he became regional director of Match in northern France, where he launched the e-commerce branch. In 2014, he became operations director of Match France, before taking charge of Match Luxembourg four years later. On 1 July 2022, he became CEO of Smatch, Match and the louis Delhaize proximity stores in Belgium.
“We got to know each other better with the acquisition of Match and Smatch and found him the perfect person to continue the path Bart was already setting out on in France with the team on the ground”, Colruyt Group CEO Stefan Goethaert said.
Colruyt Group has been active in retail in France since 1996, with 102 Colruyt Prix Qualité supermarkets. In 2004, the retailer started French wholesale operations with Codifrance, which supplies dry food, fresh and frozen foods to almost 800 superettes affiliated to its own formula Panier Sympa and to the licences Coccinelle, Coccimarket, Épi Service and VivÉco – with surface areas ranging from 80 to 400 sqm.
