The French executive also left the Carrefour group, for which he had been working since 2000. No replacement has been appointed yet.
With Francois Melchior de Polignac, 40, at the helm, the company expanded a lot on the smaller store segment (supermarkets and convenience stores) rather than the hypermarket segment.
At the time he took over, Carrefour’s supermarket network included only 35 stores compared with almost 70 today. The company also introduced the convenience store format developed in partnership with local entrepreneurs during his term.
Carrefour’s sales reached 5 billion lei (EUR1.13 billion) in 2012, slightly up in lei on the previous year. The growth was because of expansion, as sales per store went down.
Francois Melchior de Polignac started his career at the L’Oreal group in Italy. He joined Carrefour in 2000 and was appointed to several positions in France and Poland. (EUR1=RON4.4402)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)