In difficulty for several months, Auchan has just announced the elimination of several thousand jobs and the closure of around ten stores.
This is a real blow for Auchan employees but also the firm's customers. The French multinational, which has been in difficulty for several years, announced on Tuesday, November 5, a “return to growth plan” threatening 2,389 jobs, out of the 54,000 it currently has on French territory. 784 positions within headquarters and 915 positions in stores are affected. Figures higher than those expected by the unions…
Above all, the company announced the closure of several stores in the regions. First consequence of this plan, three warehouses intended specifically for home delivery should close. 224 jobs are affected, while delivery activities should be grouped into “drive” services, a particularly buoyant market for several years for mass distribution.
But that's not the only bad news! At the same time, the brand has confirmed that it plans to close several of its points of sale across the country. Auchan Retail France currently has 687 stores across the country and plans to close around ten of them deemed “unprofitable”. These closures will in turn lead to the elimination of 466 positions. Not all locations have yet been indicated, but four are already confirmed.
The hypermarkets of Clermont-Ferrand Nord (Puy-de-Dôme), Woippy (Moselle) and Bar-le-Duc (Meuse) are the first on the list. A supermarket, smaller than the hypermarket behemoths, a giant store format in decline, must also close its doors. It is located in Aurillac in Cantal. Auchan also plans to close six smaller convenience stores.
Management still hopes to limit the number of redundancies by supporting the employees concerned with retraining, reclassification leave or a voluntary departure plan. It also announced the creation of 114 positions in “drive” activities and 205 within support functions.
In France, Auchan is the fifth largest distributor. It holds a little more than 9% of the market, behind Coopérative U (12.2%), the Mousquetaires/Intermarché group (17.4%), Carrefour (21.4%) and E.Leclerc (24.1%). ). The brand has suffered poor economic results for several years and its holding company Elo Groupe had in July recorded a net loss of almost a billion euros over the first six months of 2024. Auchan Retail had also already announced the elimination of 1,475 positions in France in September 2020. It followed a voluntary departure plan of more than 500 positions in January of the same year.
