The supermarket group Casino must reposition itself after a difficult year. The absence of tourists, in particular, weighed on turnover. The decline affects all the group’s formulas.
Health crisis
The year was not good for the Casino group. The French supermarket group saw its turnover decline in all its formulas. The only exception: Latin America, where sales increased by 2.7%. On the French domestic market, the decline even reached 5.4% on a comparable basis. Total turnover thus stands at 14.1 billion euros.
The group attributes this decline above all to the pandemic, which has notably reduced the number of commuters and tourists in important regions such as Paris and south-eastern France. Casino is indeed very dependent on small local supermarkets in city centers, in particular with its subsidiary brands Monoprix and Franprix. Franprix had however taken advantage of the health crisis in 2020: turnover had then increased by 7%, against a fall of 7.3 today. Monoprix’s turnover fell by 3.7% in 2021.
Larger stores don’t fare any better. On a comparable basis, sales at Casino supermarkets fell by 6.8%, with hypermarkets losing 8.9%. Only the online store Cdiscount records stable results.
E-commerce
Profits are down: while Casino had forecast growth for 2021, the supermarket group must concede a 1.7% contraction in gross profit. EBITDA amounted to 1.28 billion euros, against 1.3 billion a year ago, explains Linear. In question: problems of stocks, deliveries and price increases.
At Casino, we are aware of the need to reposition ourselves. The group plans to sell 1.3 billion euros of additional assets to reduce its debts, while CEO Jean-Charles Naouri wants to focus on dynamic formats. Premium, convenience and e-commerce now represent 76% of sales, with growth of 15% for e-commerce and even 48% in home delivery. The group is thus doing much better than the market, explains Linéaires, in particular thanks to the partnerships signed with Ocado and Amazon in the Paris region.
The cashier becomes a customer advisor
In physical stores, Casino wants to focus on service and customer relations, LSA previously reported. After years of restructuring and the sale of hypermarkets, the brand now wants to review the job of cashier. The number of traditional checkouts is expected to be drastically reduced with self-checkouts, apps that scan items, and even unstaffed stores. Corn a role of “customer advisor” has replaced it.
Over a cup of coffee (soon available in all Casino stores), customer advisors can also recommend new services, such as the Casino Max subscription formula and home delivery through partners or personal shoppers. Mini-cameras and artificial intelligence should also detect stock-outs in stores more quickly.
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