Sudden move after long battle
Carrefour (and, mostly, its shareholders) has been in a lengthy battle
with Olofsson for years, but this decision still came as a big surprise:
no one really knows what drove the board to suddenly move faster. The
chain only commented that every condition had been met to shorten the
transitional period.
In that period, since 29 January, Plassat has been working as COO to
“get to know the company”. In that position, he has already organised
meetings with the unions and ended the contract of two senior managers.
Despite the sudden move by the board, analysts expect that Plassat will
be more cautious when revealing his strategy and vision for Carrefour’s
future. Most even think he will postpone that announcement to coincide
with that of the semi-annual results in August. At this moment, it is
still largely unknown to what extent Plassat will live up to his name of
“merciless cost-cutter”.
