picard to conquer our south-west terroir. the French frozen food giant continues its conquest of the west and south-west, and not only in the big cities. Her Great South expansion manager, Claire Senacis the guest of the New eco on France Bleu Occitanie.
Claire Sénac, Picard really wants to establish itself even more in Occitania, and therefore not only in the big cities?
Yes quite. Picard today has an ambitious growth plan because it is aiming for 200 store openings by 2026 and the opening of Montgiscard was fully in line with this growth plan. Because it is a city that has recently experienced a demographic leap and also a development of its commercial area. This allowed us today to continue our network of the Toulouse conurbation because we were already present in Castanet.
We are talking about the Toulouse agglomeration, Montgiscard, Haute-Garonne. Are you also interested in the other surrounding departments?
Yes quite. All of Occitania interests us. And I want to say that we are developing today through franchising, which is setting up in towns that are a little more out of the way of our network. Cities between 8,000 and 15,000 inhabitants, with a slightly larger catchment area of 10,000 households.
Does that also mean Claire Sénac, you who are in charge of Expansion Grand Sud at Picard, that opening a brand also means hiring locally, creating jobs?
Absolutely. Picard store, today with about three employees. These are small teams because we are very attached to proximity and the teams inside the stores are there to welcome our customers with a smile, with a truly privileged customer relationship. Moreover, throughout the Occitanie region, we employ around 500 people. It’s true that the southwest region is really a promising region for us. Moreover, in the past five years, there have been 13 openings in the Occitanie region alone. So it’s still a good result. And it is a brand that is doing quite well in this region.