The owner of the Auchan retail chain expects the Russian branch to be unprofitable in 2022, but still has no plans to exit the Russia and the Russian market. Accusations of supporting terrorism and boycotting some of the clients did not affect the financial decisions of the French company.
Auchan’s bosses: we remain in Russia
The consumer boycott did not impress the owners of the Auchan retail chain.
“We had no specific reason to modify our local presence,” said Jean-Baptiste Emin, deputy CEO of Elo, which owns Auchan Retail, quoted by Bloomberg. The network does not want to make politics but to “provide healthy food to local people,” Emin said.
Last year, the Russian branch generated EUR 3.2 billion in revenues, which corresponds to 10 percent. sales of the entire Auchan Retail. Even rudimentary data from the Russian market for this year has not been made available, but there is no doubt that this result cannot be repeated. Quoted by “Wiadomości Handlowe”, the financial director of Auchan Retail Ludovic Delcloy said that the chain feels “a marked slowdown in activity” in Russia. The French operator expects the Russian branch to be unprofitable in 2022.
Auchan has around 230 stores in Russia and employs 29,000 people.
This year will be in the red
Auchan CEO Yves Claude said a few months ago that by staying in Russia, the company will help its employees and the civilian population. – In our stores, we bake fresh bread every day for Ukrainians and Russians, which is very important at the moment, he said.
It was noticed differently by consumers in Western Europe, who organized pickets in front of shops in various countries, and posted resentful comments and photos of bombed buildings on social media and wrote that Auchan was co-financing terrorism.
Source: Wprost
