2023-12-19 18:30:00
Michel-Édouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of the Leclerc group, reacted in “La France moves” to the opening of “exclusive negotiations” between the duo Auchan/Intermarché and Casino, in the grip of great financial difficulties and threatened with dismantling .
Suffocated by a colossal debt and threatened by the specter of judicial liquidation, the Casino group sees the end of the tunnel. This Monday, the Auchan/Intermarché tandem announced, via press releases, that it had entered into “exclusive negotiations” to buy “all of the stores put up for sale” by Casino. According to the brand, in great economic difficulty, this represents “313 stores” for which “all employees of the transferred stores would be taken over”. This weekend, more than 2,000 people demonstrated in Saint-Étienne, cradle of the company founded in 1898, to call for the protection of jobs within a group threatened with dismantling.
Guest of France is moving
this Tuesday, Michel-Édouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of the Leclerc group, gave his view on what might be the epilogue of a long soap opera. At the head of the leader in mass distribution in terms of market share (24.6%), the businessman is closely following this operation which will mechanically strengthen two of its competitors, including Intermarché, already positioned in third place. from the podium, behind Carrefour. And if he admits that Monday’s announcement caused him “a little shiver”, there is no question of giving in to panic.
“All my life, there have been other brands”
“The size of the frog or the ox has never impressed me. You should not be afraid of rocks,” assures the business leader who favors an empirical approach to the situation. “All my life, there have been other brands,” he recalls at the microphone of Élisabeth Assayag.
Michel-Edouard Leclerc also refuses to see competition only through the most imposing groups. “Today, everyone is a competitor. The smallest, like Action, the smallest distribution experience, I consider a big competitor.” According to him, the leading position of the Leclerc group does not allow any relaxation. “Even when you are a leader, you have to remain a challenger,” he assures. Despite the serenity displayed, Michel-Edouard Leclerc still remains on his guard. “The absence of fear is the beginning of income, it’s the beginning of gentrification. I look at all the junior companies, I look at the startups. Faced with the future, it’s always a David who defeats Goliath,” he concludes.
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