What does the new team at the head of the distribution brand intend to do?

The heavily indebted Casino group will change shareholders on Tuesday. A social plan is in the pipeline, which worries employees.

The Casino distribution brand officially changes hands on Wednesday March 27. Businessman Daniel Kretinsky becomes the main shareholder. A new team arrives. This is a page that is turning for Casino since under the terms of the financial restructuring, the owner since the 2000s, Jean-Charles Naouri, general manager, will therefore resign on Wednesday with immediate effect, and make way for a new team including the new director Philippe Palazzi will take the reins.

Their objective is to save the group by refocusing on local brands: Les petits Casino, Monoprix, Franprix, Sherpa, etc. The 300 hypermarkets and Casino supermarkets were sold to competitors Auchan and Intermarchés, some of which were taken over by Carrefour. Today Casino has nearly 30,000 people. To get the group back on its feet, the new team plans to inject more than 1.5 billion within four years.

Employees are worried, which is understandable because a voluntary departure plan, that is to say a Social Plan, is in the pipeline. It will probably be presented in April. The details are not known, but according to the unions, it could affect more than 5,000 people, which is very important. Support, administrative and logistical functions are mainly targeted. For departing or dismissed employees, Casino buyers provide supra-legal compensation, that is to say more generous than that provided for by labor law. They also promise to maintain the headquarters, the historic cradle of Casino in Saint-Étienne, in the Loire, where Casino brings together nearly 1,800 people on Tuesday. However, this seat should be considerably reduced.

Developments envisaged

The new team promises to reorganize its stores, to increase synergies between the group’s different brands, to put, for example, Naturalia products in the Monoprix departments, Casino products at Franprix, etc. She also promises to look into the electronic checkout system, which makes purchases less user-friendly and annoys customers. Without eliminating them completely, these electronic cash registers could be fewer in number and signify the return of staff to the stores. As for the prices, sometimes considered too high, the new management promises to rework the scales and not to increase them.