Casino management announced last April that it was preparing to cut 1,300 to 3,300 jobs due to the group’s difficulties. Finally, the high range seems to be confirmed. And hopes of saving certain positions and stores are diminishing by the day.
The social breakdown within the Casino group continues slowly, quietly. But the more time passes, the more violent the shock looks set to be, and the prospect of more than 3,000 jobs being cut can no longer be ruled out. Last April, the Casino group announced that between 1,300 and 3,300 jobs would be cut following the sale of its supermarkets and hypermarkets. The lower range corresponded to the “simple” elimination of certain positions at the head offices (notably 500 at the Saint-Etienne location); the higher range added the elimination of all the positions in the 32 stores and the four warehouses, which had not yet found buyers. It is this pessimistic hypothesis that seems likely to come true.
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“The further we go in time, the more difficult it will be to turn around the Casino stores that will remain on the market,” acknowledges a heavyweight in mass retail, whose company has no view on the 32 stores. Since the end of 2023 and the announcement of the sale of Casino supermarkets and hypermarkets, Intermarché has taken over 294 stores; Auchan has acquired 98 points of sale; and Carrefour has acquired 25 of them. In the sector, everyone agrees that the 32 remaining stores (to which are added nine stores identified by sector specialist Olivier Dauvers and not included in the Job Protection Plan) are unlikely to attract many takeover offers, either because of their location or because of their condition.
Few candidates for store takeovers
The Casino group will have to decide on the future of these stores by the end of the month. While it still holds out hope for a few last-minute proposals from opportunistic players, awaiting a possible price reduction, the parent company acknowledges that not all of the stores will be saved. Only four of them, at this stage, have been sold.[…]
- challenges.fr
