Will Auchan bury the hypermarket model, and some of its jobs? This has been the concern of the employees of the northern distributor for several weeks, since the distribution group belonging to the Mulliez family revealed, during the summer, the outlines of its latest shock treatment to find the way back to the profitability: repositioning on prices in France, adaptation of the hypermarket model, development of franchising… These announcements, delivered sparsely in the middle of the summer period, quickly made the unions fear massive job cuts in a group which has 59,000 people in France and 160,000 worldwide.
Staff representatives were hoping to get clarity on the impact on employment on Wednesday October 9 at a meeting with management regarding business strategy. But their questions went unanswered, as management suggested the information would be provided on a site-by-site basis, based on their job turnover rate.
However, the financial situation is catastrophic: Auchan’s turnover (excluding countries at war) continued to fall, by 3.3% in the first half. The decline reached 4.7% in France after a decline of 2.7% in 2023. At the end of July, the company justified these results with competition “better positioned in terms of price and formats” and by a “deconsumption phenomenon” which affects more “hypermarkets (–5.2%), more exposed to non-food products” what “supermarkets (– 1.6%)”. Results which translated into a loss of almost a billion euros for its parent company ELO, which brings together Auchan and its land activities. How, then, we wonder even within the Mulliez family, not to draw a parallel with the lightning collapse of the Casino group which led to the sale of all its hypermarkets and supermarkets at the turn of the year.
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At the heart of the recovery plan led by Guillaume Darrasse, who since the end of August has held the position of general manager of Auchan Retail and president of Auchan Retail France: a strategic project called “DNA” capable of modifying the genetic fingerprint of a distributor which has made large hypermarkets its trademark. This involves reducing sales areas in a third of its hypermarkets in all its European countries. “In total, this plan will lead to an average reduction of 25% in sales areas and the hypermarket park will ultimately be made up of around 70% of stores with a surface area of less than or equal to 10,000 square meters”indicated Auchan in July. All phased in until 2027, at a rate of 50,000 to 100,000 square meters less per year.
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