European Supermarket Magazine reports that the retailer Carrefour France has announced it will lease 37 of its stores, including 16 hypermarkets, to third-party operators next year, while retaining ownership of the stores.

Union Protests

The news was revealed by the CFDT union following discussions with the retailer's management, according to the AFP news agency and other news websites.

Union members protested against the move, which is expected to affect nearly 4,000 employees who will lose certain contractual agreements with the relocation.

"We have reached the limit of what employees can bear regarding outsourcing," said Sylvain Macé, the national secretary of the CFDT services federation, to AFP.

Affected Stores

The changes involve 16 hypermarkets and 21 Carrefour Market stores, similar to the number of stores that the retailer leased in previous years.

The outsourcing process has been ongoing for several years, with 41 stores (16 supermarkets) leased to third-party operators in 2023, 43 stores (16 hypermarkets) in 2022, and 47 stores (10 hypermarkets) in 2021.

Under the leadership of Alexandre Bompard, Carrefour has sold or leased 305 stores, including 80 hypermarkets, while over 23,000 employees have left the company.

Avoiding Total Closure

Carrefour's management stated that they choose to lease money-losing hypermarkets to avoid their total closure.

The French retailer claims that this process has been successful in improving the performance of loss-making stores, thanks to the more local and agile management of the new operators.

Carrefour announced sales of €23.63 billion in the third quarter, representing a growth rate of 9%, which, while still positive, showed a slight deceleration compared to the 10.3% growth in the second quarter.

In Carrefour's home market of France, which contributes about 46% of the company's revenue, hypermarket sales increased by 4.2% in the third quarter, a slower pace compared to the 6.6% growth observed in the previous three months.