(News Bulletin 247) – The action of the distributor is under pressure on Tuesday, suffering the only significant movement of the Parisian index. An analyst mentions in particular the drop in market share in the last Kantar panel.

It is a variation that denotes in a Parisian market that is currently very calm. The retail specialist Carrefour drops 4% around 1:20 p.m. this Tuesday to 17.515 euros.

Nothing catastrophic therefore, but the company headed by Alexandre Bompard nevertheless shows the only net decline of a CAC 40 up slightly (+0.4% at the same time). In comparison, the second largest drop in the index, payments group Worldline lost only 0.8%.

No particularly obvious news seems to weigh on the title. An analyst specializing in value, however, mentioned to News Bulletin 247 two elements that could potentially explain this drop.

>> Access our exclusive graphic analyses, and enter into the confidence of the Trading Portfolio

Shift in market share

Firstly, “the market share figures published on Friday afternoon by (the institute) Kantar Worldpanel were not very good for Carrefour. However, the market having been closed in London on Monday, there may be a catch-up this Tuesday,” he said.

According to this Kantar panel, Carrefour saw its market share crumble by 0.2 percentage points over the period from July 10 to August 6, compared to the same period in 2022.

Second possible explanation, according to this analyst: the publication on Monday of a short dispatch from the Bloomberg agency reporting that Jérôme Coulombel, former legal director of the litigation department of Carrefour, was going to publish a book on the company which would “reveal” certain practices . Letter A had already reported on August 23 that this former group executive, who had been at odds with his former employer for years, was going to publish a book denouncing “the group’s practices vis-à-vis franchisees, but also suppliers and employees”.

“It is impossible to give the veracity of the future content of this book but it can always tense the market”, judges the analyst questioned.

Contacted by News Bulletin 247, Carrefour did not wish to comment on the evolution of its stock market price or on the press information.

Private labels and cost reductions

Despite the drop on Monday, the Carrefour share remains up 13% since January 1, an increase in line with that of the CAC 40 (+ 13.6%) over the same period.

The half-yearly results published at the end of July by the company were appreciated by analysts as a whole. Bank of America had thus judged that the group had demonstrated “solid execution over the first six months of the year”, with an operating result 5% higher than expectations.

“Given Carrefour’s work on private labels, volume gains and the cost reduction program (4 billion euros for 2023-22026), we expect Carrefour to be well placed” in a market where prices will be driven down by negotiations with suppliers “and that (the group) is still gaining momentum with customers”, judged the American bank.

On Franceinfo this Tuesday morning, the CEO of Carrefour Alexandre Bompard also accused the manufacturers of not passing on their prices the reductions in the costs of raw materials and energy.