Alexandre BOMPARD : "Les grandes entreprises peuvent peser sur les décisions collectives"

Well, first of all, this role has evolved quite profoundly. I was listening to the fascinating previous debate, we can clearly see that the subjects, themes, missions, questions posed to the company are not the same as those I had when I started my career about twenty years ago. The main subject we had, which was perfectly acceptable and very noble and is still a central subject, was that of creating value for shareholders, and depending on the sector of activity, it was articulated with economic objectives. Today, the conviction I have is that obviously this first mission, which is essential, the cornerstone of everything, is accompanied by other missions which are the missions according to the subjects: environmental, social, societal. Because fundamentally, we have both the size, the teams, the expertise, the methods, and the more fragile public power is, the more public power suffers, the more public power has a deficit of means, the more it is the actors of civil society, companies, associations, that must play a role, without forgetting that the main role is obviously that of value creation. So the field has broadened from my point of view.

Changing the world is always a bit excessive, but this combination of the two is essential. Is it what he brought together? Because fundamentally, I see that there is a question underlying this: how can we combine the two? What combines the two is the notion of performance first. If your company is not doing well, if your company is suffering, if you manage it poorly, your ability to embrace subjects of social, societal, environmental transformation is extraordinarily weak. The companies that can embrace these transformations are first and foremost those that are performing. So the basis of everything is that the company is doing well, that it is performing, that it creates jobs, that it develops. If it doesn't have that, it cannot embrace other subjects. That means the leader who is capable of embracing transformation subjects is first and foremost the leader who is performing. And I have the conviction, but it's a personal conviction, in this regard I have both points of convergence and divergence with what I heard previously. I believe that the business leader today must commit to a certain number of subjects that are those of his company, of his sector of activity.

Uh, we have engaged the company Carrefour, you gave its size. I told myself when I arrived, I cannot say that this company, which has 95 billion in revenue, 600,000 employees, does not have a role in the transformation of the food model, does not have a role in the link between food and the environment, does not have a role in the transformation of inclusion issues in a country like France when you are the largest employer. It has that role, not a political role, but a role of commitment. And so my mission, my role when I am performing, is when I manage to combine the two. So it is still linked to the market, to the sector. That is perhaps the limit of societal engagement: it must be within this framework, it must be extraordinarily coherent with what you do. So I have a particularity: the people who created this group with talent about sixty years ago gave it the name. At the time it was simply because it was the crossroads of roads, but it is a crossroads. And so there are very few subjects that escape our perimeter. I would say: climate transformation subjects, we are concerned; food transformation subjects, we are concerned; societal transformation subjects, we are concerned; social transformation subjects, we are concerned. So we embrace an extraordinarily wide range. On the other hand, when a subject, unfortunately rare, I would prefer there were more, does not concern me or on which I have no role or which does not correspond to my business, I leave it aside.

Well, first of all, you are right. To know the subjects on which you must engage your company, you need sensors, and the sensors in a business like ours are the sensors from the field. We have, for France, 150,000 employees to feel the subjects that are in the air. We receive 20 million customers to feel the subjects that are in the air. If you pay a little attention, it's extraordinarily easy. I had some friends who had some governmental responsibilities in recent years, and often I told them, I take absolutely no credit for it, it's just because my job allows that. I gave them bits of sensor of what is happening in society. But it's natural: I have 20 million customers who pass through one of my stores in a week, and I have 150,000 employees who correspond quite well to the sociology of the country. So we feel the subjects that are rising, we see them coming.

So obviously there are two big families of subjects on which we are engaged. First, all the subjects of transformation of the environmental model, which are extraordinarily powerful subjects. I do not believe, and I somewhat disagree with the idea that the French make the choice of the end of the month versus the end of the world. Fundamentally, they ask us to find solutions and not to have to ask that question. Certainly, the end of the month is immediate, it's here, it's now, so that means we have to find solutions, and that's our job. But nonetheless, their interest in all subjects related to the future of the planet is extraordinarily present, and even the crisis has not pushed them to the background. And then there are all the subjects of transformation of society as a whole. When we engaged in fights like endometriosis, for example, among women, it's because we felt from the field that it was rising extraordinarily strongly. When we decided to recruit 15,000 people with disabilities in the company, trying to cover a very comprehensive plan on disability, both in terms of recruitment and in terms of accessibility of our stores, it's because we felt the strength of this subject in our teams. So we try to have sensors that allow us to position ourselves on the right subjects, those on which the company is.

There is an inherent contradiction in my business that has only strengthened. Staying in France, the French want food quality, they want to eat better, they want to eat better for themselves, they want to eat better for their health, they want to eat better for the planet, and this subject rose extraordinarily strongly over the previous decade. But at the same time, they do not want / cannot afford it. And the hyperinflation we experienced in the last two years, when food prices rose 20% in 2 years after being stable for 4 decades, only reinforced this impossibility. So you often see in surveys, surveys that say: I want to eat better, I want fewer processed products, I want more fresh products, I want more organic, and at the same time I am not actually ready to pay for it, not ready to pay because simply I have a purchasing power constraint that prevents me. Well, that is where my job comes in, at least the way we practice it. Our subject has been to try to see how we could reconcile the two. So how could we develop an organic offer? We are the world leader in organic. We have both organic store brands specialized in organic, we have an organic offer through our own brand, we have organic in all our stores, and we have tried, while strictly respecting all European specifications, and God knows they are demanding, to offer an organic price that approaches conventional. That is my job. My job is to try to offer food quality at an accessible price. That is what we called, we adopted a raison d'être in 2019 by the general meeting of shareholders: the food transition for all. This idea that the mission of the group, the mission of the group I lead, is to bring food quality, healthy products, fresh products at accessible prices. That is the very meaning of our business. Just as 60 years ago, those who created it had the role of democratizing mass consumption. At that time, that was the mission of the Carrefour group. Today, its role is to ensure accessible food quality for all.

In fact, my job is to offer choice. My job is not to substitute myself for the consumer in their choice. Often I am told: how do you develop a very strong ambition on plant-based alternatives, for example, and at the same time keep fishmongers and butchers in your stores? A good question, by the way. How do you commit to organic and at the same time keep conventional products? How do you commit to very strong commitments, thousands of tons on plastic, etc., and at the same time keep plastic packaging? So there are apparently many contradictions, and there are. My job is to give the consumer the choice and to offer them the means of that choice. So I do not make the choice for them. I am not going to tell them: well, you are only going to consume organic products and you are going to stop consuming responsible products, conventional products. I cannot tell them, I do not have to tell them: you must stop your consumption of meat and fish. But on the other hand, I must be able to tell them: I develop the best plant-based alternatives on the market so that you have the choice, and these plant-based alternatives I offer them to you at a price that is accessible to you, and I explain why it is good for the planet. But if you then go to the butcher or the fishmonger in the store to meet our butchers and fishmongers, that's great for me too, it's your choice. And it is this freedom of choice that we must be able to offer. And at the same time, obviously, we take extraordinarily strong commitments on our own brand, the Carrefour brand, which are all Carrefour brand products that make up about 40% of the revenue, as mentioned earlier, on which we have removed controversial substances, we have removed GMOs, we take extraordinarily strong commitments on animal welfare, etc., etc. So we take very strong quantified commitments, and at the same time we leave the choice to the final consumer because it is their choice to engage in responsible consumption or not. Sometimes not, it's just that I cannot because the processed product costs less and that's the one I naturally go for.

Well, first of all, you need an optimistic leader. And I consider that my role, sometimes I battle a bit with my colleagues, I too can spend thousands of hours talking about French over-regulation, the accumulation of standards, the difficulties of developing a French company, the importance of the French tax and social system, etc. I do that in circles with public authorities when I think I have influence. On the other hand, when I express myself both before my employees or in public occasions, I believe I have a mission to carry a somewhat positive message. I am one of those, it can sometimes be a bit naive, but I assume my naive side, who considers that we have this role: we must lead a social body towards missions, we must present all the accomplishments of the company. Because we are a country that has been overcome by a moroseness that is extraordinarily strong, which is also partly part of our character. And so the mission of the leader, of the business leader, is to bring not optimism per se, but achievements, accomplishments, attained objectives. And I believe that is extraordinarily important. For example, we are a sector of social elevator. It's extraordinary, the social elevator in a sector like this. Consider that around me I have hundreds, thousands of my managers who entered the store at 17 or 18 years old, who were interns, who were at the checkout, who filled shelves, and who then find themselves managing stores that do 100 million in revenue and 500 employees, or who are members of the executive committee of one or another of my countries. We have a pure and perfect social elevator, there is no limit to this social elevator. And I say it, I take actions to accelerate it because I want this social elevator to work. Because optimism means developing actions that accelerate these elements.

So we created a school for leaders that each year graduates 2,000 of our employees, who then move up a step in the company. We have a whole action plan for access of so-called visible minorities to managerial functions, because that is the only area where the social elevator does not work purely and perfectly. Because I believe that when you have the chance to have a social body and a sector of activity where the social elevator works, you must give acceleration elements and you must talk about it. So we talk about it a lot because it is a positive element for the company. You are 17 and a half, 18 years old, you come from a difficult neighborhood in Lyon, you enter the store in Vénissieux, you start by filling shelves. If you look around you, if you analyze the situation, you say to yourself: I can end up at the head of this store. Being at the head of this store means you are the boss of an SME that does 100 million in revenue. And that happens to us every day. Every day I appoint somewhere in the group, in the 18,000 stores of the group, an employee who entered the store when he was 17 without a diploma. It is an exceptional wealth. So we must say it, we must promote it.

Well, first of all, if you allow me, to make the link with what we just said, also what a kick in the face to French declinism. We spent weeks, months, and years reading and hearing that we were now incapable. But reread what was written, it's prodigious: incapable of organizing an event like this, incapable, we were no longer able to manage security, we were not capable of organizing a big event, etc., etc. It lasted weeks, months, years. When I engaged the company Carrefour, then really I will answer your question, I had to face a series of negative reactions, including internally, and I accepted it very well, that this event would be a failure anyway, which is extraordinary. Well, I believe that by the time the Paralympic Games ended, we could have some reservations here and there about one element or another, but we all had a feeling, I hope you share it, of very great pride in having been able to organize these events. I hosted, and I will answer your question, hundreds of business leaders from around the world that I had invited, some of whom had experienced all the Olympiads of the last three decades, who told me: we have never seen that. What pride for our country, let's say it, we must be able to say that now.

Now I answer your question, forgive me, you were already answering it in part. Thank you. The question I asked myself when we committed to these Olympic Games, and the dialogue I had with Tony Estanguet, is: what can these Olympic Games bring to Carrefour, and what can Carrefour bring to these Olympic Games? I don't need to make my brand known a priori, people know what Carrefour is. The question I had was: what can I bring that is different? And the conclusion I reached with Tony Estanguet, the reason we committed, is that Carrefour will give a formidable popular anchoring to these Games because we have thousands of stores, because we have thousands of employees, and we welcome the number of customers I mentioned. But for that, these Olympic Games must be completely anchored in this popular dimension, and we organize hundreds of events in our stores, we welcome, which was the case at the Village, notably at Club France, hundreds of thousands of people who came every day, we made thousands of tickets available to our customers.

And then that my social body appropriates this event, that the social body says to itself: I wear the jersey, the Olympic Games jersey, I will go to the Olympic Games, I will be able to volunteer to work at the Olympic Games, I will do inter-company tournaments to participate in the Olympiads, I will go to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. And that's what we did. I invited, I said, a few dozen guests, but I especially invited thousands and thousands of my employees and my customers to come and attend something related to the Olympic Games, because I wanted to give this popular dimension. And we succeeded. Afterwards, we were also, as you know, the official supplier of fresh products for the athletes, who eat a lot, by the way, I confirm, even almost more than we anticipated. And we tried, I said that disability was the great cause of our Carrefour 2026 plan, we tried that the Paralympic Games, and it exceeded our expectations a bit, by the way, were truly the strongest moment of our engagement, by associating as much as possible our employees. We had many team members, you know, we created a team of athletes and para-athletes who behaved exceptionally. And we tried that these Paralympic Games highlight all of Carrefour's commitments, both in recruitment, I said we have accessible stores where we have brought together in about sixty hypermarkets all the initiatives we take so that people with disabilities, when they come to a store, are received in a more comfortable way for them. So these Paralympic Games were also for us a moment of extraordinarily strong joy. And I was very proud of my country and I was very proud of the company I am in charge of through these Games.

Well, both, both have a lot of resonance for us because we are so much in the lives of our customers that when the internal lives an event well, it reflects on our customers. But to succeed, it had to be first an internal event, and it was. And then I believe, if I believe all the studies that have been done, that Carrefour was perceived as one of, or the main partner of these Games, because there was an extraordinarily strong engagement of the social body. There are many initiatives that I would never have thought of that came from the social body, and that was my greatest satisfaction.