Colruyt cuts jobs, but denies covert restructuring

At Colruyt Group’s headquarters, job roles are being reassigned and layoffs are taking place. However, the retailer strongly denies the accusation by the ACV union that this constitutes a covert restructuring.

Hundreds of layoffs

With margins under pressure at Colruyt Group, the retailer is placing greater emphasis on productivity, automation, and AI. As a result, certain jobs are being eliminated, particularly in less critical departments. The company is also reportedly cutting management positions. This comes to light today following a report this morning in the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. In it, a former IT employee mentions a “covert” restructuring.

According to the man, Colruyt has quietly laid off hundreds of people in recent months. By carrying out these layoffs weekly and in small numbers, the retailer is reportedly seeking to avoid the strict procedures and mandatory social consultation required for a collective layoff. Frank Convents of the Christian trade union ACV Puls calls it a cynical tactic in the newspaper. But in the business newspaper De Tijd, the liberal trade union Synova calls the reporting exaggerated.

“Sound business management”

Colruyt denies that a covert restructuring is underway and speaks only of sound business management: “At Colruyt Group, we have always focused on efficiency and productivity; it’s in our DNA. As a result, we may organize things differently, focusing on simplification, automation, and AI, just like virtually every company is doing right now. That means some jobs will shift and change. In certain cases, our collaboration with employees will come to an end,” says spokesperson Eva Biltereyst.

“Colruyt Group is a company with around 30,000 employees. In such a large organisation, there is constant staff turnover: people join, progress internally, choose a different path, retire or leave the company for other reasons. At Colruyt Group, we have a healthy, natural turnover of staff. The figures circulating in the press today regarding redundancies are incorrect,” the company states in a written response.

“We continue to grow”

“We feel it is important to emphasise that we are also recruiting new staff. Last year, we made 3,100 new hires. There are currently more than 350 vacancies, for which we give preference to internal promotion and career progression. We therefore continue to invest in talent and in the future of our business.”

“We also continue to grow as a company, by opening new stores and by acquiring businesses that align closely with our strategy and the direction we are taking as a food & health retailer.”

Colruyt Group will publish its annual figures next Tuesday. It is unclear whether those figures will provide clarity on the evolution of the workforce: the majority of the layoffs are said to have taken place fairly recently, after the close of the fiscal year at the end of March.