Auchan Retail: Fabien Derville (ex-Decathlon) takes over

The Family Association Mulliez (AFM) announced on Monday May 5 the appointment of a new board of directors for Auchan which will be chaired by Fabien Derville, in a difficult context for the flagship distributor of the Mulliez Empire.

Through this change of governance, the company, which has been going through “for several years the questioning of the hypermarket model which has made its success”, wants to “rely on its forces,” said the AFM statement.

Fabien Derville, former president of Decathlon, succeeds Yves Claude, who also occupied until August 2024 the post of managing director of Auchan Retail, where Guillaume Darrasse has already succeeded him with the mission of revitalizing and transforming the group.
The Auchan group, in difficulty, announced in November 2024 a large restructuring plan providing to delete nearly 2,400 positions in France.

This employment safeguard plan (PSE) includes internal reclassifications, voluntary departures and early retirement measures.
Since the arrival of Guillaume Darrasse as Director General of Auchan Retail, the latter has also “developed the Alliance with Intermarché, animated the passage of 94 Casino stores under Auchan brand” has been welcoming AFM.

The arrival of Fabien Derville to the presidency of the Auchan board of directors “marks the strong will of the AFM to go to the end of the transformations that we have started”, rejoices for his side Guillaume Darrasse, quoted in the press release of the AFM.

Another change on the board of directors of Auchan, the arrival of Barthélémy Guislain, president of the AFM management council, which “will be particularly in charge of the link with Elo”, specifies the press release.

The ELO group, which brings together the Auchan distributor and the real estate activities of Nhood and Ceetrus, experienced a difficult new exercise in 2024 with a net loss of more than 1.2 billion euros.