Carrefour Italy next in line for restructuring

Much like in France before, Carrefour Italy wants to tackle its bad financial results by downsizing the staff and reducing the size of several hypermarkets. On the other hand, the retailer will be investing in store openings and e-commerce.

Important market

The food retailer intends to downsize five of its 51 Italian hypermarkets and cut up to 590 jobs (about 4 % of the total workforce). This was revealed in the chain’s business plan for 2019 to 2022, which was released to trade unions and then passed on to Reuters. Simultaneously, the group wants to invest 400 million euros in its store network, resulting in 300 new stores. Online activities will also be boosted.

Layoffs will be kept at a minimum and made on a voluntary basis wherever possible, Carrefour says. Italy is the chain’s third most important market in Europe, after France and Spain: the country represents 6 % of the group turnover. Last year, turnover dropped by 4 % on a comparable basis. The plan for restructuring is also made with a new legislation in mind: if passed, the new bill would force shopping centres, stores and supermarkets outside of central city locations to stay closed 26 Sundays a year.

Carrefour is currently executing an ambitious five-year plan to save on expenses and on jobs, to increase e-commerce investments and to partner up& with technology players such as Google and Tencent. The group also intends to downsize or franchise a number of hypermarkets in France, reduce the non-food assortment and open more pickup points. This Thursday, on the 28 February, Carrefour will be releasing its profit figures for financial year 2018.