Philippe Palazzi, a business rectifier challenged by Casino
2023-07-28 10:27:00
The challenge is big. The French leader, privileged choice of the “consortium” of buyers Daniel Kretinsky, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and Attestor fund, will have to turn the tide within the group that owns the Casino, Franprix, Monoprix or Naturalia brands, which has 200,000 employees, including 50,000 in France. .
Scale pattern glasses and dark blue suit, the current boss of a consulting company is already delighted with AFP to face such a “challenge” within“a flagship of the French retail industry”.
For him, Casino “is not just a point of sale where we buy products, it’s a place where there is exchange, life (…) where we like to remake the world”he explains.
“In the south of France, Casino is really part of childhood and history” of each, says this native of Aix-en-Provence, a fan of long outings to the supermarket with his four daughters, which can last “up to two to three hours”.
Work your way up
Born of Corsican parents, Philippe Palazzi began very young in mass distribution, first as a seasonal employee then as department manager at Metro in the 90s. The German group is now 45% owned by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.
For 25 years, he climbed the ranks of the German giant one by one, from Budapest to Dusseldorf, while integrating the business schools HEC Paris and the London Business School.
“I think what qualifies my entire career at Metro is that I was always sent into situations where you had to turn around and then develop the business”explains Philippe Palazzi.
It was a “very clear leader, very direct”remembers an employee who did not want to be identified and who met Philippe Palazzi when he was in charge of Metro France and the Southern Europe region.
Il “advocated decentralization”while keeping the know-how of the acquired companies so as not to “pollute with the ideas of the headquarters of Metro”summarizes the same source.
It was in Italy, where he was posted for seven years, that Philippe Palazzi, responsible for reviewing the entire commercial strategy, “made a reputation” within the group, according to the same employee.
Frenchman Philippe Palazzi, former CEO of Lactalis, tipped to head the Casino distribution brand on July 27, 2023 in ParisAFP / JOEL SAGET.
He takes the place of “only French” to the management committee. And when he finally leaves Metro, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the group Jürgen Steinemann praises in a press release “his great energy” et “his sense of strategy”.
Two numbers 1 at Lactalis
After his career at Metro, Philippe Palazzi’s stint between 2020 and 2022 at the global milk giant and French number one in the food industry Lactalis was more “complicated”according to a connoisseur of this period.
“He arrived being number 2, while telling himself that he was number 1. When he proposed some strategic changes that the president (Emmanuel Besnier) did not want to follow, he understood that there was no had no room” for two chefs at the same time, describes this same source who wished to remain anonymous.
“He made the group evolve a lot in a year and a half (…), he wanted to modernize (Lactalis, editor’s note), especially for the way of communicating”she says.
According to Philippe Palazzi, this divorce did not damage his “very good relationship” with Emmanuel Besnier. He is also happy to“having learned a lot in the food industry”.
Quite discreet in the media, he is described as very present in the field, “with a real ability to get the teams on board”greets the former collaborator of the Metro era.
A strategy that Philippe Palazzi wants to implement at the head of Casino. He already plans to show up “on the first day of taking office” at the group’s headquarters in Saint-Etienne to meet the teams.