Carrefour's long goodbye: "Italy complicated"

MILAN – The signs of a farewell are all there, even if for the moment they remain just that. The latest round of redundancies at Carrefour, 175 of which were decided for the headquarters in Milan , came while for weeks there have been rumors, never denied by the company, of a withdrawal of the French group from Italy.

What is certain is that the Gdo giant is no longer able to make its business profitable in Italy: 93.5 million in losses last year, 129 in 2023, 115 in 2022. And for this reason it has long since started a process of converting its owned stores into franchise businesses. According to the 2024 balance sheet data, out of 1,185 stores, only 211 are owned by the group, while the remaining 900 are linked to the brand with franchising agreements. Which, however, according to the balance sheet data, ensure 365 million euros, a tenth of the company's total turnover. The rumors that have followed one another in recent weeks and that the company, questioned by Repubblica , did not comment on, suggest something more. The group is reportedly evaluating the sale of its activities in Italy to other large players in the sector, with Lidl, Esselunga and Conad among the potential buyers .

The company is not going out on a limb, but in the press release announcing the redundancies, it did not hide the difficulties it is encountering in our country. “The decision is closely linked to the complexity of the conditions of the Italian market , within which the large-scale retail sector is characterized by intense and fragmented competition, in the face of decreasing purchasing power and constant pressure on margins, determined by energy costs, logistics and rising interest rates,” it said.

The sector has been facing increasingly fierce internal competition from discount stores for years. According to data collected in the latest report by Mediobanca's Research Area on Large-Scale Distribution, the latter maintain more sustained annual growth rates in turnover than the former (+9.2% in 2023 versus +7.3%), but they always boast higher margins and therefore earn more in proportion.