A new phase begins at Casino: after more than twenty years, CEO Jean-Charles Naouri is stepping down and a new board is taking over. Under new owner Daniel Kretinsky, the French supermarket group is looking for a new breath of life.
Entirely new team
It was a moment of symbolical importance in Paris, as Casino’s Board of Directors met for the last time. 75-year-old Jean-Charles Naouri, who has headed the supermarket group for decades, resigned with immediate effect and reportedly without severance pay. Along with him, the rest of the board will also step down, except for independent board member Nathalie Andrieux.
The new chairman of the board will be Laurent Pietraszewski, former Auchan CEO and former French pensions minister. Philippe Palazzi be comes the new CEO: he was previously active at Metro and Lactalis. Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his associates now own 52.1 % of the shares and are cleaning up in all areas. The consortium earlier promised a capital injection of 1.2 billion euro and a debt reduction of 6.1 billion.
To Belgium
That reduction is indispensable, as the retail group’s total debt stood at 7.4 billion at the end of 2023, almost as much as the group’s annual turnover of 9 billion. However, debts should be reduced to 2.6 billion by the end of March 2028. This is the reasoning behind the sale of 288 shops to competitors Auchan, Carrefour and Intermarché, which has already halved the workforce to 28,000 employees.
After that divestment, Casino will have its absolute focus on the Monoprix formula in the Paris region. However, Monoprix has today also opened its first Belgian store in Waterloo, which will serve a test case for future Belgian expansion.
