Former Carrefour Belgium CEO takes helm at Maisons du Monde

Maisons du Monde CEO Julie Walbaum has decided to step down in March, but the interior design chain did not need to look long to find a successor. Her replacement is a familiar name: François-Melchior de Polignac, long-serving CEO of Carrefour Belgium.

22 years at Carrefour

Walbaum has been in charge of the furniture retailer since 2018. Her successor is already known, and already in place as deputy CEO, working with Walbaum. His name may ring a bell in the Belgian retail landscape: François-Melchior de Polignac.

De Polignac spent more than 22 years in executive positions at Carrefour, including as CEO of the Belgian branch between 2013 and 2017. He returned to that position to help Carrefour Belgium safely through the pandemic between 2020 and 2022.

Sales plunge

At the same time as the appointment, Maisons du Monde also announced its annual figures. They were rather disappointing: the decoration chain posted a turnover of 1.24 billion euros, down 5.1 % from a year earlier. The retailer does stress that it is still 5.1 % more than in 2019 and that volume fell more modestly, by 1.2 %

Interestingly, online sales fell 15.5 % last year to 359.6 million euros. More than 70 % of sales still come from physical shops. The chain also gets 60 % of its turnover from decoration and 40 % from furniture sales. The formula does not announce its profit figures until March.