Carrefour starts economy drive

THE BOSS of giant French supermarket chain Carrefour has pledged to “reinvent” the company and make it more “loved,” faced with dropping profits.

Carrefour, Europe’s biggest supermarket company, saw its profits for the first half of 2009 drop to €1 billion, that is by 28% compared to 2008.

Lars Olofsson has said he wants to save €4.5 billion by 2012 by a range of economy measures such as reducing the time it keeps stocks in its warehouses, centralising its European buying and renegotiating prices with key suppliers. Mr Olofsson said he aimed to “transform the way we work without losing jobs”.

The changes will see new own-brand products, he said and moving towards standardisation of some its shops which operate under different names. The store will also aim to drop prices so as to combat an image of being one of the more expensive stores.

Mr Olofsson said he wanted to chain to be more “recognised and loved”. “We must delight people every day,” he said.