CEOInterviews.AIEntrevista | Stephane Maquaire, CEO do Grupo Carrefour Brasil

B

Bruno Meer0:01

Hello, good evening. You're watching Show Business, the most traditional business talk show on Brazilian TV. On today's program, we'll welcome the Frenchman Stéphane Maquaire, CEO of Carrefour, the largest food retail group in Brazil, owner of brands like Atacadão, Sam's Club, and Carrefour itself. In just the first quarter of this year, the group's sales in the country reached 27.8 billion reais, a 2.5% increase compared to the same period last year. The executive will talk about retail differences between countries, the reasons why Brazil is exporting a supermarket brand to France, and why Atacarejo keeps growing in the country. I'm Bruno Meer, and welcome to today's Show Business.

He is the engineer who swears he never considered leaving his home country, France. However, plans didn't go as planned. Since 2021, after a stint in Argentina, Stéphane Maquaire is the CEO of Carrefour in Brazil, the largest food retail group in the country, owner of brands like Atacadão, Sam's Club, and Carrefour itself, with about 1,200 points of sale and 130,000 employees. Last year, Carrefour Brazil's revenue was over 115 billion reais. We're going to receive Stéphane Maquaire on this program. Thank you for accepting our invitation here on Show Business.

S

Stéphane Maquaire2:05

Thank you. Thank you to you, Bruno, for the invitation.

B

Bruno Meer2:07

Stéphane, I want to start by talking about Atacarejo, because Atacarejo, which is the mix of wholesale and retail, has been gaining strength in Brazil in recent years, and one of the great examples is the Carrefour group through its Atacadão. What makes Brazilians increasingly seek out Atacarejo? Is it a solution for buying a lot, very easily, with even cheaper prices?

S

Stéphane Maquaire2:38

It's an easier purchase because there aren't many SKUs in the assortment, a smaller assortment than what we see in hypermarkets, and it offers well-chosen, cheaper prices than the classic format because it's simpler to prepare and to ship. For us, this is an arm that is about the economy of the country, because people are perhaps increasingly seeking products with lower prices. It's a general trend in many countries around the world. Purchasing power, as inflation was very high in recent years in many countries, our customers are seeking smaller solutions.

B

Bruno Meer4:00

You've been at Carrefour for a short time, right? Since 2021 in Brazil and since 2019 in Argentina when you became CEO of Carrefour in Argentina. But Carrefour's presence in Brazil, the group has been here for 48 years, will be 49 years in September. What is the change in the profile of the Brazilian consumer in recent times, Stéphane?

S

Stéphane Maquaire4:32

48 years, obviously the world has changed a lot. The consumer is a consumer who needs more options to buy. Before, we had one store to buy our food products. Today, we're looking at the consumer having many options. What is very relevant is the digital channel that we've developed in recent years. Four years ago, it wasn't like this. You went to the nearest store, point final, and that was it. Now we're talking about a group where the consumer has many channels.

B

Bruno Meer5:44

Now we're talking about a group, and I opened the program defining Carrefour as the largest food retail group in the country. But with your superlative numbers, I can say that in fact it's the largest retail group in the country, right?

S

Stéphane Maquaire6:03

Exactly. With the size we have, we are a giant. We have a responsibility. We always say 130,000 employees, so we're responsible for more or less 130,000 families, so many more people beyond our employees. And in fact, we are one of the largest companies in terms of jobs in the country.

B

Bruno Meer6:40

Now, I presented a number from you last year that had growth. If we look at Brazilian retail companies, we see several companies with difficulties in the country. I'm not talking about food retail, I'm talking about other types of retail. Is this reality of difficulty not one you're facing? For example, at the beginning of this year, 2024, how has the year been?

S

Stéphane Maquaire7:14

2024, our customers are returning with more strength to our stores, with more frequency. So we're seeing a good improvement in our sales across all our businesses. It's true that retail went through a slightly more complicated situation in 2023, after three years of very high food inflation in the country, and 2023 was a very difficult year in terms of purchasing power, with many people having difficulties paying their bills at the end of the month. Indebtedness has been increasing in the country. We're seeing a step-by-step improvement in consumption in the country in 2024.

As you mentioned, we have as our first business the Atacadão, and the Atacadão has two customers: the end consumer, which is you and me, and the merchant customer. And this business has also started to grow again at the beginning of the year.

B

Bruno Meer8:59

We opened the program talking about Atacarejo, about Atacadão. Today, how much does it represent of your business?

S

Stéphane Maquaire9:03

70% of our sales. So it's very relevant. We call it Carrefour Brazil Group, but in reality it's Atacadão Brazil Group. We're a publicly traded company and our stock is called Atacadão.

B

Bruno Meer9:25

Now, the personification of Atacadão's success, I think, is translated by the export of the brand to France, right? What pride! How did you decide to export Atacadão to France?

S

Stéphane Maquaire9:45

For that reason we mentioned at the beginning: in France, there's also a purchasing power that gets complicated for people, with years of food inflation. And we decided, thinking that Atacadão is a good response for that complicated purchasing power for many people in France. So first it's a pilot, we'll see how the French respond to this new model.

B

Bruno Meer10:12

You've already opened, right? How long has it been open? Can you already draw some conclusions from this pilot you're doing?

S

Stéphane Maquaire10:33

Not yet, it's been about a month. It's quite complicated because when we open one, people get interested, and then you have to have customer loyalty and develop the customer base. It can explode at the beginning and then nobody comes back. The secret is to have loyalty, exactly, so that people come to buy their own products.

B

Bruno Meer11:16

Now, what Brazilian lessons are being exported to Atacadão in France?

S

Stéphane Maquaire11:24

A simpler purchase for the consumer, a simpler operation for the store as well. Products on the central aisle, pallets, simplified, smaller products, categories by categories. That's a bit of the secret of Atacadão.

B

Bruno Meer12:02

Now, the Brazilian customer service, that real service at the checkout, will it be exported to France in some way?

S

Stéphane Maquaire12:12

Obviously, here there's more heat, more emotion, people like to talk to each other more. It's nice. Each country has its own way of being. But here it's true, it's very warm, it's good.

B

Bruno Meer12:45

Along this Show Business, we have participation from outside, from some of those 130,000 employees in Brazil. We selected three of your employees to ask questions. Not every day do they have the opportunity to stand before the CEO, and they'll have the opportunity now on Show Business. Let's see the first employee who has a question for you.

W

Wellington13:14

Hello Stéphane, how are you? My name is Wellington, I'm a commercial manager here at Atacadão, and I'd like to ask you a question: how was the reception of Atacadão's arrival in France? And I'd also like to know if there are plans to expand with more units there. Thank you very much and see you later.

S

Stéphane Maquaire13:32

Well, Wellington, right? Wellington, yes. I think he's really asking the question we've been discussing, and I think there's that curiosity. And in fact, it's a national pride, right? You have a Brazilian brand being exported to Europe. It's not every day that in France a new brand, a new banner is opening. We're happy. We'll see in a few months how it goes in France.

B

Bruno Meer14:33

We talked about, I opened the program even presenting Stéphane, talking about a personal particularity of his: he never thought about leaving his home country, France, and suddenly he's in Brazil. First of all, are you enjoying Brazil?

S

Stéphane Maquaire14:54

Very much, very much. We talked about the warmth and the service, the energy that people have in the country, the size of the country. So for a person, the possibilities we have to grow are infinite. It's a very nice country.

B

Bruno Meer15:19

And when you received the invitation to be CEO in Brazil, first in Argentina and then in Brazil, what was your reaction? You would have to leave your home country, right?

S

Stéphane Maquaire15:29

Actually, we went through Switzerland first. Switzerland is very close to France, and it was the German-speaking part of Switzerland. I learned a lot, I love working internationally. So by chance, I worked in France, lived in France, for a country that's very similar but in that German-speaking region it was already another way of working. When I received the invitation for Argentina, well, it was an additional step to Latin America. Let's see. Our daughters were very engaged, my wife, after we decided to leave the country, she wanted to have this experience with our daughters. And then suddenly here in Brazil, and Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world, obviously in geographic terms but also in terms of economic potential. For Carrefour, it's the second country in the group.

B

Bruno Meer17:12

It's the second country. How many countries are there?

S

Stéphane Maquaire17:16

There are 40 countries if we include all countries, including those where we have franchises. And Brazil is second.

B

Bruno Meer17:28

That's interesting. In past editions of Show Business, we received Benoît Baz, the global CEO of Saint-Gobain, the French construction giant that's in 76 countries, and he said Brazil is in third or fourth place for French companies installed in Brazil. In many cases, it's one of the first countries in terms of size. These companies are very successful in Brazil.

S

Stéphane Maquaire18:04

Yes, sometimes there are some difficulties, but for us it's a success. I think it was a good choice. We bought the Mini Atacadão and grew that Atacadão until it became, as we said, 70% of our sales.

B

Bruno Meer18:35

It's important to enter this point because you've made recent acquisitions. You're talking about Atacadão in 2007, there was Grupo Big, there was Sam's Club, and there was Macro. How is the integration going now? I want to talk about integration first.

S

Stéphane Maquaire19:00

It's 100% completed. It was completed in July or August of last year. We bought Grupo Big in June 2022. It was 12 to 15 months of very hard work to integrate systems, convert from one system to another, convert distributions, create a new culture, merge the teams. A lot of work, and that work ended in July or August of last year.

B

Bruno Meer19:36

I imagine when you talk about all this integration, perhaps the biggest challenge is uniting the culture of the organization, because these are companies with cultures that were born in a certain way, and suddenly you unite the culture. How do you unite the culture of several distinct brands and organizations into one?

S

Stéphane Maquaire20:05

We prepared before the actual purchase of Grupo Big, looking at the cultural elements in the various parts: in Atacadão, in Carrefour, and in the various brands of Grupo Big. And we united everything. We have our pillars of culture: inclusion, which is very important, including all people regardless of color; cooperation between us; and obviously the commitment to changes we need to make. And that's how we built the journey of this new culture.

B

Bruno Meer21:08

And you think it was all a success. Now we're talking about successes. Let's talk a little about errors. Were there any errors in this integration? Because there are many integrations at the same time.

S

Stéphane Maquaire21:30

An example we saw was in systems. The difficulty of changing from one system to another. We chose the Carrefour system in some situations, and one of these systems came very close to not being able to include all the new stores that came from Grupo Big. We passed through very complicated moments in July of last year, where we didn't know if the next day we'd be able to supply our stores. That, for example, we should have prepared better beforehand and seen the limits in the technology of that system.

B

Bruno Meer22:22

Speaking of systems and complexity, have you been attacked by hackers, as other Brazilian retailers have been attacked?

S

Stéphane Maquaire22:33

Yes, but we never reached a very dangerous point of negotiation. We prepare a lot, it's always a race to ensure we're prepared. And these attacks also come from outside the country, not just from Brazil. They can come from anywhere on the planet. Another country in the Carrefour group can be attacked and it can reach Brazil, or from Brazil to other countries. So we have a specific team on this.

B

Bruno Meer23:28

I ask this because it's a topic I frequently raise with executives who participate here on Show Business, which is cybersecurity. Because both you and other retailers in the world have suffered from customer data attacks. And alongside that, I wanted to enter a subject that I also frequently discuss with executives, which are the two most cited words in the global corporate world in recent times, although the technology has been around for a long time: artificial intelligence. Those are the two little words. When was the first time you heard about artificial intelligence?

S

Stéphane Maquaire24:09

It's not recent. The first time was in Switzerland. My CTO in Switzerland brought this to us. I remember well because we talked about many things about artificial intelligence, machine learning, and all that. It's the limit of working in other languages because new concepts, you don't have words even in your own language. So you have to understand and then be able to speak in several languages about these new concepts. It was the same when I was in Argentina when the pandemic arrived, and new government measures came in, quarantine measures, all these words I had never used in French. Then to explain what we were doing in Argentina to overcome the moment, explaining that to the global team was very complicated because those words didn't exist in another language, which was Spanish. So it's interesting how new concepts, you finally have the idea, the concept, but in the new language you work in, not your own.

B

Bruno Meer25:52

And how did you deal with these changes? You're speaking French, your original language, then German, then Spanish, and then you come to Brazilian Portuguese. Was all of this very difficult, or do you have an aptitude for it?

S

Stéphane Maquaire26:11

I thought I didn't want to work outside my country also because of the language issue, that French is what I can say. But it's like being thrown into cold water. So you work directly in the new language. The first days are very complicated to understand, but the learning curve is very, very fast. And the second point is that it gets easier each time because the brain ends up being more prepared for new languages.

B

Bruno Meer26:50

Let me go back to the subject of artificial intelligence, because we went down the path of language, which is also very interesting. We talked about brain intelligence, human intelligence, but now I want to go back to artificial intelligence. How has artificial intelligence already arrived in retail? How has it arrived in your business?

S

Stéphane Maquaire27:11

We're analyzing our internal data. We receive 2 million customers per day, so we have a lot of data. We're using artificial intelligence in many pilots still to improve our service, to make some bets. We have some pilots, some laboratories in our activities to improve our customer service.

B

Bruno Meer27:50

Now, you've been through, we're talking about France, Switzerland, suddenly Argentina in the middle, and now Brazil. What are the biggest differences in retail in each of these regions?

S

Stéphane Maquaire28:07

In Brazil, it's a consumption that's more divided. People here, consumers, use much more credit cards, so consumption through financing. When the interest rate goes from 2% to 13.75%, as was the case last year, it complicates life a lot. So we have these consequences on the purchasing power of Brazilians that perhaps we don't have much in France. In France, people take on debt to buy a house, not to buy food products. Here it's more common to use it for any moment of life.

B

Bruno Meer29:09

Now, you went through Argentina, which is another country with inflation through the roof, in 2019-2020. How was it? It's very different from Brazil, right?

S

Stéphane Maquaire29:24

Yes. Here we were able to take advantage of that difficulty with food inflation by offering our customers always the lowest price compared to the competition. When you have 10-12% inflation per month, if you can hold prices for 15 days of inflation, you have a very high differential with your competitors. That's what we understood in Argentina. When you have, like in France, for example, 1% annual inflation, even if you can hold 15 days of inflation, the differential is so small that it doesn't change from one brand to another. In Argentina, as inflation was high, we were able to do that, and we were very successful in recent years.

B

Bruno Meer30:35

You know there's a rivalry between Brazil and Argentina, right? Did you hear about this? Especially in football?

S

Stéphane Maquaire30:48

It's a bit like the French and the English. Yes, it's true, it's true. You get used to it.

B

Bruno Meer30:58

Now, in these 48 years of Brazil, there's another thing I imagine is a particularity of the changes in the Brazilian consumer profile, which are the proximity markets near consumers' homes, which in your case is called Carrefour Express. I'm in São Paulo, I see one near my house, for example. Is this a reality, a global phenomenon, a phenomenon of developed or underdeveloped countries, or is it a Brazilian phenomenon?

S

Stéphane Maquaire31:37

It's more of a European phenomenon. We have thousands of these models in France. When here we have 100 Express stores, and only in the city of São Paulo. So it's less than what exists in France. We still have a lot of strength in Brazil in larger format stores where you can buy absolutely everything you need. And besides, São Paulo is a much more car-driven city than Europe. And these stores also need people who come to the store on foot, not just by car. That's why there's less development in Brazil than in Europe.

B

Bruno Meer32:42

Let me talk a little about your professional trajectory, Stéphane, which is undoubtedly notable because you graduated from one of the most prestigious engineering schools in the world, in Paris. But you didn't work in retail, you started in auditing. And then in recent years you ended up in retail. How did you go from engineering and end up in retail?

S

Stéphane Maquaire33:12

Not ended up, I'm still in the middle of my career because I'm still young. In auditing, I was already in a more financial area, looking at the numbers of many companies and many sectors. So I learned to know many sectors: oil, cosmetics, a little bit of retail. Actually, my first mission in that auditing firm was Carrefour. So I already had a connection, I had already discovered a bit more about retail. And from auditing, I worked in a real estate company, a shopping center company, a gallery shopping. So I understood a bit more about retail, and from retail to food retail in France. And for the last 16 years, I've been working in this business.

B

Bruno Meer34:19

And you've been through several sectors, as I said: auditing, then real estate, and now food retail, dealing with people daily, commanding the group just in Brazil with 130,000 employees. What characteristic do you think is fundamental, regardless of the segment, to lead a company, to lead a team?

S

Stéphane Maquaire34:40

I think what's important is to lead by example. What's important is for the leader to be recognized for what they're doing, not just by talking. So the way of being present, with proximity, with transparency, also ensuring that we talk about the reality of our business, talk about what's positive, what's a difficulty to be worked on. A leader of proximity is very important because otherwise you end up in a closed office and the teams can't connect. And I think that connection greatly facilitates the execution of our plans.

B

Bruno Meer35:53

At the beginning of the program, we showed an employee asking a question about Atacadão in France. We have another participation from an employee in Brazil, and let's see a question for Stéphane.

A

Ana Paula36:14

My name is Ana Paula, I'm a manager of the Sam's Club stores in Jabaquara, São Paulo. My question is the following: today Sam's Club is a growing format and has been delivering good results within the company. I'd like to know, Mr. Stéphane, what are your expectations about Sam's Club Brazil? Thank you very much.

B

Bruno Meer36:45

Good question. Great question. And without a doubt, she speaks Portuguese but I couldn't identify the nationality of your employee, but certainly from another country, evidently, by her accent. There are some countries that speak Portuguese, that's true.

S

Stéphane Maquaire37:08

Exactly. So the Sam's Club format, which is a purchasing club that we acquired as part of Grupo Big, and it came from Big. We received 42 stores, we now have 53 stores, so significant growth. We believe a lot in this business. We went from a little over 2 million members to more than 3 million now. And we've had growth in existing stores and we've been able to modernize a bit, bring back imported products, which is important, innovation, public search. The public is now more than 2 million, 3 million now.

B

Bruno Meer38:00

Just to explain to our viewer, it's a model where you have a kind of subscription, right? You have to be a member, so you have to pay a fee at the beginning of a 12-month period, obviously all in January, and then you can shop at that store, take advantage of exclusive products, imported products, the Members Mark brand, which is an exclusivity in these stores, food products, electronics, and also in these stores.

S

Stéphane Maquaire38:50

The question is, what do we see for the future? We're going to maintain this pace of openings. We already have a closed number of how many we plan to open in Brazil.

B

Bruno Meer39:00

Do you already have a number of how many you plan to open in Brazil?

S

Stéphane Maquaire39:03

We already said that from the 40-something we received in June 2022, we can double the number of stores in the country. So 80-90 Sam's Club stores in Brazil is a target we have, and I think we're going down that path.

B

Bruno Meer39:26

A timeline? So you're saying we've already passed quite quickly 18 months, almost 2 years. In the next few years, by the end of 2026, we'll be closer to those 80 stores. And is there a specific market you're targeting? More places with higher income centers, more for an AB customer?

S

Stéphane Maquaire39:59

Sam's Club, so people who live in the largest cities in the country, often state capitals of Brazil.

B

Bruno Meer40:13

Speaking of a single brand of the group, now I want to talk about the whole group because you're responsible for the entire group. What are the plans in Brazil in the coming times? Let's talk about 2024-2025.

S

Stéphane Maquaire40:29

Continue growing in the country, continue opening Sam's Club stores, continue growing in the Atacadão proximity format, Express. We've already grown a lot. We haven't talked about our digital arm, e-commerce, which is growing this year by more than 50% compared to the previous year. But in the group's businesses, how is digital? It's present in Atacadão, in Sam's Club, in Carrefour, and globally it represents 9% of our sales. So out of 115 billion reais, 9% is through our digital channels. So there's relevance there, and we continue working on this channel to follow the Brazilian consumer. The Brazilian consumer, like in other countries, needs multiple formats, multiple channels for multiple moments of their life.

B

Bruno Meer41:45

Very well. We're talking on this program with Stéphane Maquaire, who is the CEO of the Carrefour group in Brazil. Show Business will take a brief break and we'll be back with another segment with Stéphane.

And we're back with Show Business, with an interview with the CEO of Carrefour, the Carrefour group in Brazil, the Frenchman Stéphane Maquaire. We haven't talked about a tragic situation that happened in Brazil starting from late April, with the climate tragedy that hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul, with the floods that to this day have consequences for the people of Rio Grande do Sul. And you have 100 stores in Rio Grande do Sul. What were the immediate measures you took when this tragedy hit the state?

S

Stéphane Maquaire43:01

First, finding our employees, because it took days before we could reach all our employees. We have 10,000 people working in Rio Grande do Sul. And when we saw the situation, we had some complicated situations, some of our employees were displaced. We found some places to shelter them. And then we quickly expressed solidarity within our stores. We immediately froze all our prices for the entire month of May, for all products, in all stores, to give a little tranquility, because in two or three days we already saw fear of uncontrolled price increases in food retail, and we didn't want that. So we froze absolutely everything. All products, all prices. It was talked about a lot, it became a national topic about rice, the price of rice. It couldn't change in our stores because we froze absolutely everything. It was a complicated situation. Some stores were closed to receive displaced people, donations from the whole country. We also partnered with Correios to receive donations from the whole country. We offered a closed store in the state to place all these donations. We very quickly decided to donate. We also donated products to the population.

B

Bruno Meer45:54

You mentioned something that became a national topic to this day. Did you at any point think there could be a shortage of rice, for example?

S

Stéphane Maquaire46:12

In 2024, in this situation, giving tranquility, avoiding a shortage of rice is very relevant for food in Brazil. We had to take care every day not to generate a spike ourselves. We had to have rice in our stores. And finally, after weeks, we see that there's rice in our stores at a controlled price.

B

Bruno Meer47:11

We have one more, a third and final question now from an employee of the Carrefour group here in Brazil led by Stéphane Maquaire. Let's see the last question.

T

Trinete47:27

My name is Trinete, I'm responsible for the Carrefour hypermarket in Águas Claras, and I'd like to know what the best leadership advice you could give to someone.

B

Bruno Meer47:36

This is a question that frequently appears here on Show Business, many times in the comments. Our audience is very varied, and since we only talk with widely successful executives, this question always appears: leadership tips. What are yours?

S

Stéphane Maquaire47:57

I would say courage. Courage to have proximity with our employees, to go to the stores to understand what they're seeing. Courage also to do positive things, to work to improve, to show that we're acting. Courage to act, not just to decide and see plans executed by other people. So this theme of the leader's presence in a store, in a more corporate team, is very, very important.

B

Bruno Meer48:51

Now, in the first block we talked about your trajectory, Stéphane. Engineer, started in auditing, passing through other sectors, and you mentioned a stint in the real estate sector. It's curious how people's trajectories often connect, as yours connected to today. Many people don't know, but the group here in Brazil operates beyond supermarkets and hypermarkets, it operates with gas stations, pharmacies, and a real estate division. How does the group enter with that? And there's even the financial side, because there's a bank, right?

S

Stéphane Maquaire49:43

Exactly, we have a bank that's the sixth bank in terms of the number of cards we have, the sixth Brazilian bank. So it's not just what we've been talking about in the first two blocks. Gas stations, pharmacies, there's the real estate division.

B

Bruno Meer50:02

I wanted you to explain a bit, because you have many real estate assets. You built in the country, buying land, building. When you arrived 48 years ago, you obviously arrived and started buying land and building. So you're in many cases the owners of your stores.

S

Stéphane Maquaire50:17

We built in the country, buying land and building. So in many cases we're the owners of our stores. And to keep following what our client needed in recent decades, we also built galleries next to our stores. And this real estate area takes care of our buildings and also these galleries. And obviously, with almost 1,200 stores, we have a significant number of stores where we're the owners.

B

Bruno Meer51:14

Very well. Now there's a point that's not common for the group in the food retail sector, which is the franchise point. You're now with franchises, a pilot of the Express format, to see how you can expand more quickly. It's a model that corresponds to a person who's working in a company, for example, in some situations, hotels, for people who work there to be able to make some purchases. And there's already a lot of demand.

S

Stéphane Maquaire52:09

Yes, we have many people who want to take advantage of this franchise. But we're in a pilot phase, so we're going carefully, we'll see how it works, and then we can expand.

B

Bruno Meer52:28

Exactly. We were talking about leadership, starting from a question from an employee. I find it very curious when I interview executives who command more than 100,000 professionals, because as you well reinforced here on the program, you deal with more than 100,000 families. How do you maintain the spirit of this army of people, of Brazilians who work daily with you?

S

Stéphane Maquaire53:02

A lot of communication. You have to communicate in the most direct way possible, which obviously is a challenge with this number of people. Thanks to digital tools today, we have more possibilities. We have a campus where we can connect thousands of employees and communicate what we're doing, the difficulties we have, the challenges we're facing, and ensure that everyone understands what we're working on.

B

Bruno Meer53:59

And how do you surprise a customer in such a competitive environment as food retail? Is there something that hasn't been created or invented yet that you'd like to implement in the group's businesses?

S

Stéphane Maquaire54:17

What we've done recently, which was quite discussed, is proposing to our Carrefour hypermarket customers a second price if they buy more products, the same product three, four, five times. It's more of the Atacadão, Atacarejo model. And this is an absolute success. You offer two or three products and it's a lower price per product. For example, you buy a box of rice with three, you have a lower price per product. It's a new initiative that hasn't been done before and has received a lot of success.

B

Bruno Meer55:13

What surprised you most about Brazilian culture and the way of doing business here in Brazil?

S

Stéphane Maquaire55:23

This energy that communicates, that's the most important part of my work. You see people directly energized by what you're saying. So a very quick force, a force in the openness of this energy of people in the country.

B

Bruno Meer56:00

And you've traveled a lot through our country. I already asked this question in the first block if you're enjoying the country, you swore you wouldn't leave France, you're here and you're enjoying it. You said very much. You've traveled a lot here. What did you like the most? You can speak as a person, with your wife, traveling through our country.

S

Stéphane Maquaire56:20

I chose the Pantanal. I liked the Pantanal a lot. We've been there three times. Obviously some beaches too, but the Pantanal is incredible nature. I really like that intact nature.

B

Bruno Meer56:38

Is it harder to do business in Brazil or in France?

S

Stéphane Maquaire56:41

Each country has its challenges. In France, labor laws are also heavy. Each country has its challenges. The size of the country here is obviously a challenge, supplying the stores. The organization by state also complicates a bit. But each country has its challenges. We can't say it's easier here or more complicated there, it depends.

B

Bruno Meer57:21

Do you have any reference in life, in the business world, someone who inspires you? It doesn't have to be just in the business world, it can be in life itself, Stéphane.

S

Stéphane Maquaire57:31

It's always a complicated question. I keep changing many times what I'm looking at. In the retail world, obviously Amazon is a reference. Here, Mercado Livre, which doesn't exactly operate the same way, but 53% comes from Brazil. So the capacity of these companies to operate with agility. What I'm looking at is the agility of these companies. We, with 48 years, have a difficulty reaching that agility because we have processes, organizations, many models, many systems connected. It's another thing. So choosing these newer companies that go directly to the point, because they were born more recently, but have a strategy to facilitate all of this. We're working on that, especially in our digital area.

B

Bruno Meer59:09

So I can say that you've elected, in a way, Mercado Livre as a business reference?

S

Stéphane Maquaire59:16

I think we can say that, exactly.

B

Bruno Meer59:18

Very well. We talked on this program, it was a great pleasure to receive you once again. I thank you for accepting our invitation and revealing the secrets behind this group that is the largest food retailer in the country. But by your size, by the businesses you have, especially with 70% of the business coming from Atacadão, which is Atacarejo, you are the largest retailer in the country.

S

Stéphane Maquaire59:51

Exactly.

B

Bruno Meer59:55

Thank you very much, and I thank you for your presence here on Show Business. We talked with Stéphane Maquaire, the CEO of the Carrefour group in Brazil. Show Business is ending here. Thank you very much for your audience, for your trust. We'll be back next week. See you then, bye.

N

Narrator1:00:28

The opinions of our commentators do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Jovem Pan communication group. Production: Jovem Pan News.