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Carrefour Planet, the hypermarket format launched by the second-biggest retailer, has provided Lars Olofsson with a rich seam of corny one-liners. “Which planet are you on?” asks the chief executive. “Welcome to our planet.”
But behind the hearty laugh, Mr Olofsson knows he is staking his reputation on the project to reinvent the hypermarket – Carrefour claims it invented the concept in 1963 – in an experiment that is make or break for the French retailer.
Mr Olofsson’s predecessor, Jose Luis Duran, left in 2008 after failing to turn the retailer round quickly. Mr Duran came under pressure from Carrefour’s two activist shareholders – Colony Capital, the US private equity group, and Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, the luxury goods company – who found themselves sitting on paper losses on their €2bn ($2.6bn) investment.
Since taking the helm in January 2009, the Swedish former Nestlé executive has cut costs and reinvested the savings into lower prices which have increased the group’s market share in France.
The big problem is Carrefour’s European hypermarkets, which account for 40 per cent of group sales and have underperformed for more than a decade. Sales per square metre fell 30 per cent between 2003 and 2009 in the group’s four main European markets of France, Spain, Italy and Belgium.
At the working class Vénissieux suburb in south Lyons, Mrs Gibert gave her verdict on one of the five pilot Carrefour Planet stores: “It’s much lighter, there’s more room and more staff to help you. The womenswear is also prettier – it makes you want to buy.”
The new outlets are less of a warehouse and more stores within a store. Differentiated areas are dedicated to different products, each having their own ambiance and activities.
Suspended spot lighting, wide aisles and low-level gondolas open up the shop, while colour-coded signage should mean fewer people get lost.
There are wooden floors and loud music in womenswear; in the baby area advisers are on own hand to help customers; fresh food is arranged like a market and sourced more locally.