In difficulty for several years, Auchan is launching a large-scale social plan threatening nearly 2,400 jobs in France. Faced with financial losses and a drop in market share, the Mulliez family group is attempting a restructuring to turn things around. This plan provides for store closures, reducing the format of its hypermarkets and establishing a purchasing alliance with Intermarché to reduce costs.
Job cuts and Auchan store closures
Auchan presented to its employee representatives a reorganization project with serious consequences for employment. The distributor plans to cut 2,389 positions in France. Among these cuts, 784 concern positions in its headquarters and 915 are linked to stores. Around ten unprofitable points of sale will close their doors, including three hypermarkets located in Clermont-Ferrand, Woippy and Bar-le-Duc, as well as a supermarket in Aurillac, leading to the loss of 466 jobs.
As part of this restructuring, Auchan also announces the cessation of its direct home delivery service, affecting 224 positions. However, to limit the impact of this social plan, the company offers support measures for its employees, such as retraining training, reclassification leave and a voluntary departure plan.
Furthermore, the creation of 319 new positions is planned in “drive” activities and within support functions. “ It is not a degrowth project that we want to manage, reducing costs is a means, not an end. », declared Guillaume Darrasse, general director of Auchan.
A strategy to catch up
If Auchan has long been perceived as one of the giants of mass distribution in France, the group is now struggling to maintain its position in the face of aggressive competition. With a market share of only 9.1%, far behind E.Leclerc (24.1%) and Carrefour (21.4%), Auchan is particularly exposed to the price war exacerbated by inflation. According to the Éditions Dauvers Distri Price index, Auchan displays significantly higher prices than its competitors, a disadvantage in attracting consumers.
To remedy this situation, Auchan has formed an alliance with Intermarché, an unprecedented partnership lasting ten years, aimed at pooling their purchases and thus obtaining better conditions from suppliers. This merger of purchasing services could generate savings of 380 million euros, essential for reviewing its pricing policy. “ The 375 million savings that we are targeting will be injected into the reduction of labels », Specified the management. However, even with these measures, Auchan still faces structural difficulties: too much dependence on the hypermarket format, which has lost its appeal among consumers.
Since its creation by Gérard Mulliez, Auchan has focused on the hypermarket model, a large-area format that is now in decline. This strategic choice weighs heavily on its finances: over the first six months of 2024, the group recorded a net loss of almost one billion euros. Unlike Carrefour, which has been able to diversify its formats by relying on local stores and supermarkets, Auchan remains mainly dependent on its department stores. To adapt, the group plans to reduce the size of its hypermarkets to 8,000 square meters, like the Leclerc model, and to refocus on food products.
