French retail giant Carrefour's new CEO Georges Plassat said at the annual shareholder meeting this week that, given the worsening economic climate, it would take three years to turn the company around.
'Have no illusions,' he said, 'there will be headwinds. I cannot commit to short-term promises. It will take three years to relaunch the engine. You need three years to achieve anything that is solid.'
According to Plassat, Carrefour will focus on reducing the company's debt, deciding whether to exit particular markets and lowering overhead costs, while at the same time restoring power to local managers.
He suggested that the company could put some of the money that it currently spends on marketing into its stores.
Plassat revealed that the retailer would be unable to maintain a presence in its current geographical zones, raising doubts as to whether the company was best placed to manage its operations in Turkey.
The CEO also mooted plans to abandon the one-brand strategy that Carrefour has taken years to implement, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.
Although he offered no timeline for store rebranding, Plassat stated that shoppers did not want big corporate giants running stores on every corner, adding that price differences for similar products between small format stores and hypermarkets had negatively affacted Carrefour's price image.
