Lidl to cut jobs in France, where its market share is under pressure

Lidl is facing challenges in France: the discount retailer is seeing its market share stagnate and plans to cut 550 jobs to streamline the organization and boost its competitiveness.

Loss figures

Lidl is considering cutting up to 550 administrative jobs in France. Given that the discounter employs approximately 46,000 people in the country, this represents up to 1.2% of its workforce. Furthermore, the cuts would be entirely voluntary. The retailer will begin negotiations with the unions on April 9 regarding a collective severance agreement, according to LSA. At the same time, the company plans to create about 100 new jobs at headquarters and about 50 at the regional level.

France was the first foreign market for the German discounter, which launched there in 1989. But the retailer is struggling there: in the recently concluded 2024/2025 fiscal year, revenue from the approximately 1,600 stores fell by 1% or 159 million euros to 16.7 billion. The loss was reduced from 72 million to 9 million euros. Its market share is reported to have recently fallen to 7.9%.