Cascais (Portugal) yesterday, Valenciennes (North) today, Fréjus and Mandelieu-la-Napoule in the south-east of France tomorrow. Three dates, three places. The first in the seaside resort near Lisbon dates back three years, the second opens tomorrow November 29 in Valenciennes, the third are planned for spring 2025.
All are part of a project called “Cap 8000”, 8000 like 8000 m², the size set by Guillaume Darrasse, in dual command of Auchan France and Auchan Retailduring the presentation of the broad outlines of its strategy at the beginning of November. In this project, half of the hypermarkets in France (60 out of 119) will see their surface area drop by 25% over four years. The operations director of Auchan France, David Guilluy, repeated it at the inauguration of a new “small local hypermarket” on November 27 in Valenciennes: “ the hypermarket is not a model of the past, but you have to find the right format. The hypermarket of the future will give pride of place to food professions with a more selective non-food sector ».
The list of 19 hypermarkets affected by a drop in m² in 2025
Boulogne (Pas-de-Calais)
Cambrai (North), Châteauroux (Indre)
Domérat (Allier)
Illkirch (Bas-Rhin)
Laxou (Meurthe-et-Moselle)
Le Pontet (Vaucluse)
Marne-La-Vallée (Seine-et-Marne)
Mont Saint-Martin (Meurthe-et-Moselle)
Olivet (Loiret)
Petite-Forêt (North)
Semecourt (Moselle)
Saint-Jean de la Ruelle (Loiret)
Saint-Priest (Rhone)
Saint-Quentin (Aisne)
Villars (Loire)
Viry Noureuil (Aisne)
Source : LSA
In fact, the small hypermarket which is reopening in Valenciennes has completely redesigned its offer around two routes as shown in our report carried out last night, one directly on food and fresh products (30% of turnover today) , the other on a narrow offer around non-food private labels (Qilive for electronics, Actuel for home, In Extenso for textiles, etc.), without forgetting the traditional seasonal zone also concentrated around private labels. If the supply has been significantly reduced in Valenciennes, it is obviously much less than what is planned for 2025, this store losing “only” 350 m² of surface area. The big winners of this version are the private label (25% of turnover today, much less than the competitors) and fresh food redesigned around a central hall.
Two ex-Casino hypermarkets will serve as version 1 of the new “small” hypermarket
What will remain of this first draft? Guillaume Darrasse, also present this November 27 at the inauguration of the Valenciennes store, warns: “ each store will be enriched with the previous version. Cascais is version -2, Valenciennes is version -1… “. No dogma in the matter therefore, but constant adaptation to the local environment. The next version, the zero?, will be visible in spring 2025 in two ex-Casino hypermarkets on the Mediterranean coast, one in Fréjus (Var), the other in Mandelieu-la-Napoule (Alpes-Maritimes).
Two ex-Casinos taken over in May and June 2024 whose surface area corresponds to tomorrow's format, 8,371 m² for Fréjus and 8,989 m² for Mandelieu. Two hypermarkets whose turnover per m² under the Casino brand is below professional standards, less than 5,000 euros per m² for Fréjus and 6,700 euros per m² for Mandelieu. “ We will have to make trade-offshad warned Guillaume Darrasse at the beginning of November. The yield per m² of Auchan, around 8,000 euros per m², is not high enough compared to the competition. Disengagement from non-food is part of this. “The 25% least productive references bring in less than 1% margin »
Bordeaux-Lac, Le Pontet, Arras, Cambrai will see their surface area reduced
This November 27, at nightfall, a handful of employees from the neighboring Auchan store, that of Petit-Forêt, denounced this reduction in m², which involves a reduction in staff. “ We are going from 16,000 to 10,000 m² », Explains one of them. Initially, 11 positions should be eliminated in household appliances, in the logic of a non-food sector reduced to the essentials. LSA has obtained the list of the first 19 hypermarkets affected by a reduction in surface area. Among them, liners like Bordeaux-Lac, Le Pontet near Avignon…The reductions in surface area will not be the same everywhere: -15% in some, -20% in others.
The objective is also to make savings on personnel, amounting to 350 million euros, going from 14 to 12.5% of turnover on average. “ Lowering costs is a means, not an end », concluded Guillaume Darrasse at the beginning of November. From today and for four months, the unions will fight to obtain the best conditions for the more than 2,000 employees (4% of the workforce in France) affected by the social plan.
The social plan in figures
2,352 positions out of a total of 53,278 employees (September 30, 2024)
including 1,346 on operations (including 915 in stores in non-food, security and salary planning positions and 466 due to the closure of ten stores)
including 782 positions in support functions (purchasing, etc.)
including 224 positions in three warehouses on remote delivery
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