Surprised by the news of the takeover by Carrefour, the employees of the Cora and Match stores do not hide their surprise… and their concerns internally. In stores, exchanges continue before the effective operation in 2024.
Antoine Petry – Today at 17:36 | updated today at 19:24
“We are in shock. Stunned. Nobody knew about anything, the news fell on us. So to get an official reaction, we will already digest the information, and see what awaits us…”. Slipped on condition of anonymity, this confidence of an employee of the Match group in Nancy said a lot, Thursday, on the climate reigning within the stores of Cora and Match, after the announcement, the day before, of a takeover process by the Carrefour group.
A historic pole in the world of large food distribution in the Grand Est, Cora will change its brand in the course of 2024 with the Match stores. The sale concerns around sixty hypermarkets across France and 115 supermarkets for a total of 24,000 employees, reports a Brussels communication agency commissioned for the occasion by Cora. Through the shelves, the staff makes no secret of an uncertainty that is by nature anxiety-provoking. In the two main structures of the Nancy conurbation (Houdemont and Essey-lès-Nancy), meetings have multiplied to inform employees and reassure them if necessary. Internally, there are many questions.
Internal instructions
Instructions have been distributed within the hierarchy to manage expressions of concern internally. “If the clientele questions us, we are invited to give a telephone number”, we explain to the reception service. Already naturally resistant to the transparency of spontaneous communication, mass distribution is closing its channels for better control. “All the employees of the two brands will be retained”, specifies the communication agency, questioned on the subject. The steps refer to the press release issued the day before. A Nancy manager tries to minimize the impact of a “non-event since there will always be a store in 2024”, while conceding “concern due to strong identities”. A Match cashier wonders to know “if the achievements will be kept, and if we keep our job under the same conditions”.
“We cannot deny the attachment”
The vagueness therefore still surrounds the questions of a staff caught up in speed. “Many of us have a bond of loyalty internally, sometimes with several decades of history. Discovering that in the press…”, ruminates an employee of Houdemont. ” It cannot be denied that there is an attachment to signs “says a Cora manager from Lorraine. “Questions remain, of course, but the process is still long, it will result in discussions with staff representatives and the authorities”.
The occupants of the cells in the galleries, for their part, consider that “this takeover will not change anything, insofar as we rent our occupation to the company Galimmo”.
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