The management of Carrefour Belgium decided to reorganize some of the branches as an investment plan. He wants to invest 300 million euro into the remaining branches, obtaining better looking shops and to make them profitable again.
Because of an unknown reason, the remunerations for personnel working in Carrefour are 10 % to 15 % higher than in other similar companies. The remarkable thing about the personnel in similar companies is that they’re more productive than the personnel in Carrefour, even though their payment is higher.
Due to the high costs Carrefour had to carry, the profit was very low to nonexistent and therefore no room to invest.
Carrefour believes that with the remaining branches they will be able to expand their market share. But experts tell us that Carrefour will practically throw a part of their market share into the hands of Delhaize and Colruyt by closing several branches.
In my point of view I see this as another consequence of the economical crisis and to be honest, we have seen a lot of this during the past year. But a company this big does surprise me. My only hope for the people that have been fired is that they will be able to find another job soon. But I don’t think that will be the case..
On the other side, if Carrefour thinks this will help them become successful again, then this was a step in the right direction.
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20100223_020
I interpret this event in a totally different approach, in my opinion there is more than meets the eye and dominates the news titles. As mentioned in the article they have to close about twenty establishments in Belgium in order to restructure. In my opinion the actual reason why this is happening is because of the competitive struggle with market players like Colruyt and Delhaize. Carrefour loses market share because they don’t have a clear strategy in comparison to other giant supermarkets. So I rather think they’re using the story of the financial crisis as an apology for their reorganization.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAnd then there’s also the quote that says it will be difficult for dismissed employees to find another job, I fully disagree with it.
Last week, ‘De Tijd’ published an article about Colruyt in which they announced that they will recruit another 3.500 employees. That’s about twice the number of the discharged employees for Carrefour so I think finding a new job may not be a problem to these people if they simply put some effort into it.
I agree that it's not the financial crise who has caused this... But It's Carrefour who has not a clear strategy. The people who shop in Delhaize, like to shop in an agreable way. Delhaize represents 'quality' and 'luxury products'. On the contrary, Colruyt tries to sell mark products to the lowest prices. As you can see, these two markets have a clear strategy.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenOf course I can't say it's easy for these people who lost their job, to find a new job. Moreover as I will write in my following blog, we also have to think about all the consequences for other shops who are linked to Carrefour (for example Lunch Garden).
I think the media has to stop with accenting all the bad news in the world. Because as Annelies already mentioned, Colruyt recruit 3500 new employees,which is very good news for the confidence of the consumers. Only this was mentioned in a very small article in the newspaper... But would the newspaper stay such interesting if it only would mention good news?
The newspapers indeed exaggerate some occasions, like Carrefour’s reorganization. But I hope that this isn’t the begin of the end of Carrefour in Belgium. There are some rumours that Carrefour will disappear off the Belgium market.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThe fact is that the concept of a hypermarket doesn’t work so well anymore in Belgium. In Carrefour’s hypermarket you can find almost everything, like cd, electronics, toys, food, cloths… The people don’t have time anymore to enjoy there daily or weekly shopping in such sort of shop. Have you ever reserved a Saturday afternoon to go shopping with your family in a hypermarket? This concept doesn’t work in Belgium.