And 39 which will make a total of 344, according to the CFDT: every year since the arrival of CEO Alexandre Bompard at the head of the distributor in 2017, management has informed the union organizations of‘a new wave of franchise and rental management storesusually around forty.
Each time, there are several thousand employees – nearly 4,300 this year according to CFDT and CGT, the latter denouncing “carnage” – who thus leave the group’s workforce.
After a transition period, these employees lose all or part of their social benefits by joining smaller legal entities.
Speaking to AFP on Friday, the group’s management declared that “since 2018, rental management has proven its ability to turn around the performance of stores with significant losses” and that no Carrefour hypermarket has closed since that date.
“In 2025, we will continue the pace of transition to rental management of stores that we are unable to rectify in an integrated management mode”adds Carrefour.
27,000 employees “exited”
Leasing management is a particular form of franchise store operation, in which the franchisor, in this case Carrefour, remains the owner of the business.
This mode of operating stores, like franchising, allows the distributor to maintain its commercial market share by avoiding bearing certain operating costs, starting with salaries, covered by an independent merchant.
The latter also pays a fee to the distributor to use its brand, and generally obtains the vast majority of its supplies from its purchasing center.
Since 2017, these are “344 stores (95 hypermarkets and 249 supermarkets) which were sold to buyers and more than 27,000 employees who left the workforce” of Carrefour, according to CFDT estimates on Friday. Management no longer provides information on the number of direct employees of the group in France.
Regarding the performance of franchise and lease-managed stores, “the feedback we can get is that the store is neither better nor worse, but that the workforce is down on average by 10%”assures AFP Sylvain Macé, national secretary in charge of mass distribution at CFDT services.
Several legal remedies
This policy also allows Carrefour to remove from its accounts stores with sometimes fragile financial healthfinding room to maneuver to invest or to remunerate its shareholders in dividends and share buybacks.
But the CFDT, which denounces a “disguised restructuring plan”took the distributor to court last March. On Friday, the union announced “summon Carrefour for summary proceedings in the coming days”in order to“prevent any further transfer of stores” pending a judgment on the merits.
Regarding this procedure, “the judge ordered mediation, the content of which is confidential and which ended on December 26 with a failure”indicated Sylvain Macé.
The distributor reacted by saying “trust the summary judge not to call into question a decision which has the sole effect of avoiding the closure of the stores concerned, and thereby saving the jobs of their employees”.
These are not the only legal proceedings targeting the distributor and its use of franchise.
Franchisees, generally from smaller format stores, also took him to the Rennes court and received support from the Ministry of the Economy. The latter’s services considered that Carrefour’s practices towards its franchise partners are “characteristics of restrictive competition practices”. The company vigorously contests this.
Furthermore, Carrefour and its major Dubai franchisee Majid Al Futtaim were singled out in October 2024 by the NGO Amnesty International regarding the working conditions of migrants in Saudi Arabia.
The distributor and its franchisee have carried out audits on the subject. Carrefour had assured that “Initial investigations did not confirm the elements named in the Amnesty alert but revealed other problems“.
