Colruyt Group appoints Christophe Garcia, former managing director of Match and Smatch in Belgium, as managing director for its operations in France. He succeeds Bart De Schutter, who is retiring.
Experienced manager
The 51-year-old Garcia, who has French nationality, is an experienced retail manager: he was regional director of supermarkets at Auchan before joining the Louis Delhaize group. In 2009, he became regional director of Match in northern France, where he launched the e-commerce arm. In 2014, he became operations director of Match France. Four years later he took charge of Match and Match Luxembourg, on 1 July 2022 he became CEO of Smatch, Match and the louis Delhaize proximity stores in Belgium.
‘We got to know each other better with the acquisition of Match and Smatch and therefore found him the perfect person to continue the path Bart was already setting out on in France with the team on the ground,’ said Colruyt Group CEO Stefan Goethaert.
Colruyt Group has been active in France since 1996: in retail with 102 Colruyt Prix Qualité supermarkets, in wholesale since 2004 with Codifrance, which supplies dry food, fresh and frozen foods to almost 800 superettes affiliated to its own formula Panier Sympa and to the licences Coccinelle, Coccimarket, Épi Service and VivÉco, with surface areas ranging from 80 to 400 m².