Carrefour boss says e-commerce strategy starting to bear fruit

Reuters  |  PARIS 

By Dominique Vidalon

Bompard, who took over as in July 2017, said accelerating its digital commerce expansion was an "absolute" priority in the face of competition from and other

"Six months ago we were isolated. All the were taking place without us. Now we have deals with and Google," Bompard told the company's annual shareholders meeting.

"Your company has become attractive again and is resolutely offensive. I am very proud of the partnership which shows that is back at the highest level worldwide," he said.

Europe's largest retailer in January announced plans to cut costs and jobs, boost investment and seek a partnership in in an effort to lift profit and revenue and beat domestic rivals in the race to develop

As part of these plans announced on Monday it was teaming up with to boost its on home turf.

Carrefour has been a laggard in e-commerce and the Google deal is in line with Bompard's plans to invest 2.8 billion euros in digital commerce by 2022, six times its past rate of investment.

It comes after a deal in March between and the upmarket French chain saw the U.S. make further inroads into in

Other digital initiatives from Carrefour have included the opening of its first in last month in partnership with

The group also announced a five-year purchasing alliance with peer Systeme-U, that makes Carrefour the biggest buyer in its competitive home market.

In April, Carrefour however gave a cautious outlook for this year after sales growth slowed in the first quarter, with continued weakness in its core French market suggesting that the faces a long road to recovery.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Richard Lough)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Fri, June 15 2018. 16:57 IST