Lille (AFP)
Nearly 1,500 new job cuts: the management of the distributor Auchan Retail France (Mulliez galaxy) announced on Wednesday the "second stage" of its "transformation plan" in the face of "new consumer expectations", a "real shock" for unions after the more than 500 jobs already cut in early 2020.
"This project would result in the net elimination of 1,088 jobs currently occupied (1,475 positions would be eliminated, including 10 vacant, and 377 positions would be created)", she wrote in a press release, while an extraordinary social and economic committee has been held since Tuesday in Hem, near Lille.
Among the professions concerned are after-sales service, fund managers, human resources, management controllers, administrative and financial professions.
The Lieusaint meat-cutting workshop (Seine-et-Marne) and 9 of the 11 repair centers would close and the after-sales services in hypermarkets would be removed to "digitize" the after-sales service.
According to management, no cashier or cashier would be made redundant.
- A model in decline -
The distribution group had already announced a first part of its "recovery" plan in spring 2019, with the sale of 21 sites potentially involving between 700 and 800 employees.
Then in January launched a voluntary departure plan, which spared the stores, with the elimination of more than 500 jobs.
By moving to the "second phase", the company wants to "double the food turnover in digital commerce" by 2022 and intends to "establish a unified management of the chain of goods, from the supplier to the customer", or "accelerate the digitization of the Auchan offer and the shopping routes".
"The momentum boosted over the past several months has delivered encouraging but fragile and insufficient initial results. Nevertheless, we are in the right direction", underlines Jean-Denis Deweine, CEO of Auchan Retail France.
Auchan's economic model is mainly based on hypermarkets, which are now losing momentum in the face of new consumption habits which see customers turning, for their food shopping, to local supermarkets in particular and, for their non-commercial purchases. food, to specialized stores or the Internet.
"The additional costs generated in terms of transport and health security as well as the new fears of customers in particular vis-à-vis large retail outlets, have disadvantaged hypermarkets and weighed on the economic situation of Auchan Retail France", assures the group.
In the first half of 2020, profitability increased by 79%, but operating income remains negative, digital turnover now represents 12% of total turnover over the half (i.e. an increase of 33 %).
- The CGT calls for a strike -
"On services like after-sales service, we did not expect so much", responded to AFP Christophe Delay (FO).
"On the cash registers, they are minimizing but it is the end of all fixed-term contracts and, in the long term, we know that this will have an impact, within two to three years, with 70% of conventional cash registers disappearing. worse than we thought ".
"For employees fully mobilized during the health crisis despite the risks to their health and that of their families, this announcement is a real shock! This is how Auchan offers them its recognition," added the FGTA-FO federation in a press release.
Guy Laplatine (CFDT) wonders about the consequences of the closure of the after-sales service which could eventually sign the disappearance of the household appliances departments, giving way to the non-food "corners" of other brands, such as Boulanger, also property of the Association Mulliez family (AFM).
"The AFM has received a billion CICE, aid for the Covid, it has the duty to relocate as many people as possible in the other brands" of the group, he underlines.
"The social breakdown continues (...) while at the same time, the company has received public aid from the State while paying its employees minimum wage. Yesterday, they were heroes, today (they ) serve as an adjustment variable! ", laments the CGT in a press release, calling on employees to go on strike on September 17.
The holding company of the distributor Auchan, long in difficulty, continued its recovery in the first half of 2020 despite the Covid-19 crisis.
Auchan Retail's gross operating profit (EBITDA), which increased by 227 million euros in 2019, gained 162 million euros compared to the first half of 2019 to stand at 1.25 billion d 'euros.
The company has 618 points of sale and employs 73,000 in France.
bur-jpa-bj-eva / frd / eb
© 2020 AFP