Carrefour Espagne - Alexandre De Palmas - Directeur Général

I arrived in July 2020, just under a year ago, in Spain during the pandemic and crisis. I came from Carrefour France, where I was in charge of proximity stores, the smallest ones. Before Carrefour, I had varied experience in publishing, advertising, restaurants, and real estate. I came to Spain to finish managing the pandemic, drive growth—Carrefour's ambition in Spain—and adapt our commercial offer to Spain's current situation. The pandemic was an incredible shock for Carrefour Spain. Customers rushed to stores at the start of lockdown, but hypermarkets' non-food sections closed quickly, while proximity stores were first stormed then deserted. It was very complicated to manage, especially for employees on the front line. Logistically, it was hard to keep stores open and handle customer influx. A strong trend emerged: customers shop less often but spend more per trip, stocking up to limit risks. That trend persists. We proposed to Spanish and regional governments to use our shopping centers as vaccination sites because we have parking, space, freezers for vaccines, and room to vaccinate. The Community of Madrid was the first to accept, and we are very happy to be the first private entity in Spain where people can get vaccinated. The pandemic changed society's view of distribution workers. People realized we need cashiers, delivery drivers, truck drivers, and shelf stockers to eat every day. These undervalued jobs regained importance, which was very positive for our teams who were scared and stressed. That public recognition was a reward. The Spanish market is a paradox in Europe: it has the largest leader, Mercadona, with 30% market share—unmatched elsewhere—yet it's the most fragmented market with over 40 significant regional chains. Carrefour is number two with just over 9% market share, mainly in hypermarkets but also supermarkets and proximity stores. Our roadmap in Spain is expansion: we open about 100 new stores per year and recently acquired Super Sol. We intend to keep growing to consolidate our number two position. The supermarket of the future is not ultra-technological or science fiction; it meets customer expectations: local, healthy, affordable products with short supply chains, organic, gluten-free, lactose-free as needed. It's a precision store, not a generalist one. We work extensively on data and artificial intelligence to process massive volumes of data. We use it to better understand customer wants and adapt assortments store by store. No two Carrefour stores have the same assortment; it's tailored by product and reference based on location, demographics, etc. That's a concrete example of using AI to improve commercial performance. We are emerging from the health crisis and entering an economic crisis. Vaccination will gradually lift constraints, but we still have circulation and capacity limits. Spain's growth is weak, unemployment is high, and purchasing power will be a major concern. Quality-price ratio is crucial. We have clearly shifted to strongly support Spanish families' purchasing power. We helped during the health crisis when people wondered what they would eat; now we will help on purchasing power. Our commitment is to offer the best quality-price ratio and seek low prices, especially for families with significant consumption needs.