Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. It is a great pleasure to welcome you to our Massy Headquarters for the Presentation of Our New Strategic Plan. On behalf of all the teams who contributed to organizing this event, let me tell you how much we appreciate your presence today, which shows your interest in our group. I would like to particularly welcome the members of our board of directors, our shareholders, the financial analysts, and members of the press here today, as well as those following us remotely. As we open a new chapter in Carrefour's history, and for my part, a third strategic plan, I would like to express how proud I am of what our group is today.
Thanks to the commitment of the 500,000 staff members working for Carrefour banners worldwide to serve the 10 million customers we welcome every day, and thanks to a talented management team, Carrefour is doing well. Customer obsession is the norm. The group is innovative, agile, and financially strong. On many topics, our purpose, our private labels, our digital transformation, and our e-commerce, Carrefour is at the forefront of the industry. It's closely watched and often copied. Let's take a look back at how the group has evolved. As you can see, Carrefour today is the result of these changes: a stronger, more competitive group that can adapt to increasingly demanding market environments. In the wake of a global pandemic and a wave of hyperinflation that was unseen in Europe in 30 years, consumer behaviors have indeed evolved, now focusing more strongly on purchasing power.
Price competitiveness has always been a top deciding factor, and today it has become a sine- qua- non condition for any growth strategy. Our markets are polarizing under the pressure of leaders and newcomers who are reinventing standards of cost, speed, and customer experience. In this world, undergoing deep transformation, two dynamics stand out. The first is the great comeback of the store. The good old store, which some said was doomed, has been confirmed as the key element of food retail. It has not been disrupted by digital. Square meters have become scarce, precious, and provide a true competitive advantage. Carrefour runs one of the densest store networks in the sector, with unmatched locations in France, Spain, and Brazil.
The second dynamic is the breakthrough opportunity offered by artificial intelligence and, more broadly, by tech and data, which is opening an unprecedented transformation of our entire value chain, from procurement to assortment building, from sales to customer relations, and even to quality of life at work. In recent years, Carrefour has taken undeniable leadership in data and digital. On the back of these market developments, I would like to present the strategic refocusing that underpins our action plan. Carrefour 2030 focuses on three core countries, representing 85% of turnover and 99% of our recurring operating income: France, Spain, and Brazil. These are markets where the group holds a leading position and strong value creation potential.... In France, the market has rationalized in recent years, and we have managed to double our profitability there. The Spanish market offers profitable growth, and we are clearly on the offensive there.
Brazil is a country of 220 million people. It's a growth market in which we have a unique leadership position. This refocusing has already translated into first actions: the acquisition of the entire share capital of Carrefour Brazil, the sale of Carrefour Italy, and the announcement of the sale of Carrefour Romania last week. Our financial reporting will revolve around four segments as of 2026: France, Spain, Brazil, and other countries. Regarding Belgium, Poland, and Argentina, now managed within the other countries segment, we will focus on dynamic asset management. We'll continue to work on improving operational performance there while keeping all strategic options open. Our North Star guiding these future decisions will be maximizing value creation. At the same time, we are accelerating the expansion of our international franchise.
In 2030, we will be the number one retailer worldwide in geographical footprint, with a presence in 60 countries, and the number one retailer in Africa, covering 22 countries. Carrefour has unique expertise when it comes to international franchise. Its development confirms the attractiveness of our brand. This business allows us, without CapEx investment, to take positions in new geographies and to build the group's long-term future. With a clarified and refocused business scope, Carrefour 2030 sets three strategic priorities for the next five years. We want to win on product offering and customers, consolidate growth from our stores, omnichannel growth. We want to accelerate performance through AI, tech, and data. Our first priority is aimed at our customers. To begin with, let's talk about what matters more than ever to them, everywhere in the world: prices.
In Brazil and Spain, Carrefour has a well-established price leadership, which we will continue to strengthen. In France, let's admit it, historically, Carrefour has not always been consistent in its pricing policy, but that is now in the past. We have repositioned ourselves over the past two years, and today, before you, I commit to improving our price competitiveness in France each year over the entire duration of the plan. We will report on the improvement in our price competitiveness using the Distriprix Net by Nielsen Index, which captures the full reality of the customer receipt by taking into account prices, discounts, and promotions. To illustrate our ambition in France, starting next week, we will offer our club members 200 everyday private label products at cost price. In Spain, starting tomorrow, we'll be launching 1,000 food products at unbeatable prices in dollar hypermarkets.
To be competitive, we must perform better in purchasing, especially versus major international FMCG groups, which have continued their consolidation in recent years. As early as 2023, we took a first step by massifying our international FMCG sourcing in Europe within Eureca. Concordis allows us to go further. By joining forces with Coopérative U and RTG, we have doubled our purchasing power. Our ambition for 2030 is to reach co-leadership among European purchasing alliances. In addition to price, we have another major competitiveness weapon, the Carrefour Club, and its 50 million members worldwide. In Spain, the club has driven 90% of growth over the last few years and already represents 70% of turnover. We will grow this community to reach 60 million members in 2030.
We are extending our offensive in Brazil with Nosso Clube, a loyalty program that will cover all our banners, including a powerful bank, and will become one of the very top loyalty programs with 18 million members in 2030. Now, let's talk about product offering. We'll first deepen our differentiation in fresh food, which is the primary driver of visit frequency and loyalty. By placing fresh food at the heart of our Act for Food program, we combine quality and best price, eating well, eating healthy. Thanks to all our actions, we're today number one in fresh market share and number one in France for fruit and vegetable prices, thanks to our club advantages. For tomorrow, we have an ambitious program that you will discover now.
...Carrefour France est aujourd'hui numéro un du frais en parts de marché, et compte bien le rester. En proposant plus de choix et de qualité, Carrefour a pour ambition d'atteindre au moins un panier sur deux contenant des fruits et légumes d'ici à 2030 en France. En France comme en Espagne, notre taux de pénétration sur les fruits et légumes progressera de plus de 5 points d'ici à 2030. Pour s'adapter aux nouvelles habitudes de ses clients, Carrefour innove. Prêt-à-manger, prêt-à-cuisiner, prêt-à-partager, nous allons élargir notre offre de solutions repas en France et même la doubler en Espagne. Nos forces pour y parvenir? Les bonnes pratiques héritées de Cora et de Match, et le talent de nos collaborateurs qui préparent les produits en magasin chaque jour. Au Brésil aussi, Atacadão renforce sa position sur le frais.
Ce sont 150 magasins supplémentaires qui vont se doter, d'ici à 2030, de stands frais traditionnels, ce qui représentera 80% du parc.
Face au développement
Faced with the rapid development of new players, I want Carrefour to position itself as a fresh food specialist with top-level partners. In our stores, we're announcing a strong partnership with the Blachère Groupe, which will operate 200 concessions for fruits and vegetables. At the same time, we're opening 10 hypermarkets specializing in fresh products, inspired by the Marché Frais by Carrefour banner, which has been remarkably successful. Seven will be operated as franchises by Bruno Quattrucci, founder of Marché Frais. We're accelerating the development of Match, a true gem for the group. With a network of 114 stores today, Match will launch a new concept with a fresh offering increased to 80% versus 45% today. Our ambition is clear: we want to reach 160 Match stores by 2030.
The basis of our fresh offer is our partnership with the agricultural community. We have forged more than 50,000 partnerships with local producers, including 15,000 within the Filière Qualité Carrefour partners, which guarantee stable remuneration to producers and exceptional quality products to our customers. Our excellence in fresh products also relies on our 40,000 employees working in fresh food crafts. Our greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers, bakers, pastry chefs, 8,000 of them will be trained each year by 2030, including 3,000 in France within our École des Produits Frais, Fresh School, a core legacy, which will now act as our global center of expertise. Alongside fresh products, we will deploy an offer that's more innovative and healthier than ever. Innovation is everywhere in our business.
Digital alternatives, Kidult, K-Beauty, so many trends that did not exist or barely existed 5 years ago, and we have missed no trend. Carrefour France and Spain already post a market share 10 points above their natural market share on innovations, and we are accelerating. Each year, nearly a quarter of our offer will be renewed in France and in Spain, with 4,000 innovations per year, including 1,000 from our private labels, which are turning 50 this year. Our Carrefour private labels have gone from 25% into close to 40% of turnover and have become a driver of commercial growth. They're a quality marker, as illustrated by Carrefour Bio, France's leading organic brand. We're keeping our leadership with a 10% growth every year. They address purchasing power challenges, such as our enterprise brand, Simpl in France and Bulnez, that we're launching in Atacadão this year.
We will continue to grow our private labels faster than national brands. For our customers, Carrefour 2030 also marks a new chapter of Act for Food. We will set new standards in food and health. Consumers refuse to choose between purchasing power and the quality of their food. We're setting a new objective: 50% of Carrefour's food sales will contribute to a healthier diet by 2030. One in two Carrefour customers will have at least one fruit or vegetable in their basket. By 2030, we will double our sales of protein products, plant-based products, gluten-free, sugar-free, nitrite-free products. Going further on health means taking action on what consumers expect: transparency. This is why we'll be the first retailer worldwide to clearly indicate the absence of ultra-processed ingredients across our product labels, and we will pull the whole market toward this major public health progress.
Whatever the headwinds, we will remain faithful to the fight against climate change. We're now rated A by CDP, which means we're among the world's top four most advanced companies. Three years ago, we made an unprecedented decision in retail. We asked our 100 largest suppliers to commit to a 1.5 degrees Celsius climate trajectory if they wanted to continue being distributed in our stores. 90% of them followed us, and today we're going further by extending this requirement to 150 suppliers, and we're setting a new target of -60% food waste. In total, we will invest EUR 200 million per year in decarbonization. We will report on these commitments by renewing our-
... Our ESG index with objectives we hope to exceed every year, as we have done for the past five years. As you can see, we have placed customers and our product offering at the heart of Carrefour 2030. The key element is the Net Promoter Score. After an increase of more than 30 points since 2017 and bolstered by new initiatives, I commit to increasing our NPS year- on- year over the duration of the plan. Our second priority regards our stores. We have three growth assets. In Brazil, we fully seized the Cash & Carry opportunity. Atacadão is a unique model: growth, profitability, and operational discipline. We have doubled its network in seven years and made Atacadão the heart of Carrefour Brazil.
We will continue to expand it with 70 openings by 2030 around a strengthened commercial and profitability model, focused on price, fresh food, online sales, and banking. In France and in Spain, our convenience stores represent an outstanding growth format. We have the best concepts, with unmatched sales per square meter. In trains, stations, and airports, travel retail is another major growth driver, and by 2030, we will open 1,000 points of sale in France and 750 in Spain to reach 7,500 convenience stores in the two countries. So the third growth format is Match, and we have not yet fully exploited that potential. We are working on expanding the format with a target of 50 additional stores by 2030, and we are increasing the pace of transfers to franchise operators to 40 stores per year.
Let us now turn to our hypermarkets. They are a valuable legacy, and they must continue to transform. For our structurally loss-making hypermarkets, the franchise lease model has proven effective. We must stay the course, and we will therefore convert 15 hypermarkets to lease management in 2026, and this will be carried out under an enhanced social framework following the renegotiation currently underway. Whether used offensively to drive expansion or defensively for certain struggling hypermarkets, franchising remains one of the major achievements of the previous strategic plan, and we will stay firmly committed to it. And there's nothing more difficult than changing a company's culture, and yet we have done it. Carrefour now operates with a hybrid organization in which both management models reinforce each other. We are undertaking an upgrade of our commercial model. Our hypermarket offering has long been too static.
It needs to remain dynamic in order to capture all sources of growth, particularly in non-food categories. Our new pharmacy, pet care, and home goods spaces are delivering double-digit growth, and we will roll them out on a large scale. Next will come second-hand and reimagined apparel, offering sports and many other categories. Overall, 5%-10% of our retail space will be reallocated to high-growth categories, and EUR 200 million will be invested every year in modernizing our stores. Services such as rentals, personal services, or financing solutions are also growth pockets, and this strongly loyalty-building offer enriches our non-food ecosystem. We target +30% growth in merchant services revenue and +40% more customers for our financial services. Our stores have turned into logistics and data centers that lie at the heart of our e-commerce growth strategy.
Since I took the helm of Carrefour, online sales have been an absolute priority. We're already number one in food e-commerce in Brazil, number one in home delivery in France, and we achieved the highest Drive click-and-collect growth in France in 2025. We are fast-tracking our growth with two drivers. We're improving in-store preparation, order compliance, and our same-day order rates. We're also increasing assortment size. Carrefour Drive will offer, in France, 100% of the store's food range. That's twice the rest of the market. In France, our ambition is to reach 40% market share for home delivery and 20% market share for Drive, click, and collect. In Brazil, we will double Atacadão's online sales volume. Our third priority: accelerate our transformation through AI and technology.
Whether data, cloud migration, CRM transformation, or e-commerce, our digital retail company has embraced every major trend and has established itself as a preferred partner for the world's leading technology players. With our 10 billion transactions, we have a data lake that is unique in both scale and quality, and this enables us to personalize customer relationships and develop adjacent revenue streams via our financial and merchant services, as well as through our retail media business, which continues to grow. Unlimitail has established itself as the leader in the European market, even though the market has not yet reached the scale initially expected. At a time when the traditional advertising market is under pressure, we will double Unlimitail's revenues, and we are placing more emphasis than ever on in-store screens. The emergence of AI represents a turning point.
AI is one of the major strategic bets of Carrefour 2030, and I deliberately refer to this as a bet, because we are not yet able to quantify precisely the gains that this revolution will deliver, but we know that those gains will be substantial by 2030. Starting with productivity gains in both our store operations and our headquarters functions. Regarding our stores, today, we are announcing a strategic partnership with the VusionGroup. Following the example of Walmart, which has implemented this technology with outstanding results, Carrefour is becoming the first retailer in Europe to deploy a fully integrated solution, combining cameras, electronic shelf labels, connected rails, and artificial intelligence to address key in-store operational challenges, such as out-of-stock detection, price accuracy, product geolocation, planogram management, and more.
Let us now take a look at how this technology operates in practice at our Villeurbanne hypermarket, located just 20 kilometers from here.
Leader mondial de la digitalisation du commerce physique, Carrefour fait entrer ses hypermarchés et supermarchés dans une nouvelle dimension. Bienvenue dans l'ère du magasin intelligent.
Nous sommes ici dans notre hypermarché de Villeurbanne, où nous avons installé nos premiers rails connectés fusion, et c'est une étape importante dans la stratégie de digitalisation des magasins. Et chez Carrefour, nous avons une conviction: le digital n'est pas une fin en soi, il doit avant tout servir les équipes des magasins. Donc, nous avons deux enjeux: mieux servir nos clients et faciliter le travail de nos collaborateurs. Donc, nous allons déployer ce réseau de rails connectés, équipés d'étiquettes et de caméras, avec trois objectifs très concrets: détecter les ruptures pour avoir des rayons toujours pleins, contrôler les prix sur les étiquettes pour assurer la cohérence entre la caisse et le rayon, et faciliter la préparation des commandes e-commerce grâce à la géolocalisation des produits. Mais l'objectif est toujours le même: plus de prix, plus de plein, plus de propre.
Hier, nous traitions nos ruptures tous les jours à la main. Aujourd'hui, on reçoit des alertes directement sur notre TR, ce qui nous permet de remplir le rayon immédiatement, de traiter la rupture et de nous libérer du temps pour mieux servir le client.
Après Walmart aux États-Unis, Carrefour est la première enseigne en Europe à déployer la plateforme Vusion de dernière génération à très grande échelle. Ce partenariat marque une avancée majeure vers le magasin de demain, en combinant rail intelligent, intelligence artificielle et vision par ordinateur au service du client et du collaborateur.
Vous le voyez, c'est un projet de transformation.
As you can see, this is a major operational transformation project for Carrefour, with a multi-year investment program of EUR 150 million for the entire network of hypermarkets and supermarkets in France. Regarding our central functions, our teams are already working on transforming business processes with AI agents. A few hands-on examples: selecting the right locations for our expansion, contract management, granular sales forecasting, customer service, and optimizing logistics flows. We will pay particular attention to upgrading our employee skills and deploy specific training program for all employees, whether in stores, at our warehouses, or at head office.
We have already taken a first step by deploying Gemini to 250,000 employees in 2025, and all of these action plans rely on more than EUR 100 million invested every year into AI by 2030, and on an AI factory, bringing together internal teams and AI specialists to coordinate the move and get the best out of each function. Productivity challenges are common to all companies, but the hallmark of our sector is the intensity of the agentic commerce revolution. Today, 60% of consumers report using AI in their shopping journey, whether to get information, search for a product, or buy it. In the near future, AI agents will be a central point of entry for our customers. With 100,000 users every month, Hopla + has laid the foundations in our app for the first agentic shopping experience in France.
We are part of a very small circle, around 20 players worldwide, and together with Google, we are jointly building a shopping experience directly based on Gemini. And in France, we're already the most visible food retailer in the three largest large language models. As you can see, Carrefour 2030 is a growth plan. We are determined to play offense. We are committed to the historic objective of 25% market share in France and 20% market share in Brazil by 2030, and we will achieve this target thanks to all of our initiatives and by deploying between EUR 1.8 billion and EUR 2 billion in investments into modernizing our stores, our logistics, and our tech, data, and AI initiatives. And Carrefour 2030 is also a clear discipline financial framework focused on improving profitability and returning value to our shareholders.
We want to achieve the same level of profitability of our best-performing peers with an operating margin target of 3.5% in 2030 and a milestone of 3.2% in 2028. We will generate EUR 5 billion in cumulative cash flow by 2028, with cash flow growing steadily every year. Our adjusted net income per share will also deliver steady annual growth of 5%-10%.... Ordinary dividends will represent between 50% and 60% of adjusted annual net income, and we aim to grow this every year. We will maintain one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry by ensuring that our financial rating remains what it is today, BBB stable outlook at Standard & Poor's. Our strong cash generation will allow us to decide every year on additional shareholder returns.
Finally, we're changing the format of our interactions with shareholders and investors with the following initiatives, in particular, new reporting segments to specifically track performance in our three core countries, increased granularity on cash flow. We need to clearly distinguish between operational and real estate cash flows, and visibility on the value, and also evolution of our real estate assets, currently estimated at EUR 14 billion. In parallel, we will organize regular theme-based workshops for investors, and the first workshop will be scheduled on June 16, and will focus on our ESG commitments. It'll be followed on November 20, 2026 by a session dedicated to our hypermarkets and by an AI and tech workshop in January 2027.
Now, before we take your questions, I'd like to refer to the mindset that's the source of inspiration for this new strategic roadmap, starting with my decision to continue my mission at the head of Carrefour. When the board of directors did me the honor of proposing to renew my mandate, I asked myself one question. As a matter of principle, I asked myself: Do I still have the fighting spirit and the spirit of innovation, what I demand from my teams, as well as the ability to amplify whatever works and change whatever doesn't work? Carrefour 2030 has operated consistently since 2018, developing franchising, our growth formats and our own brands, our private labels, relentless work on costs, and our pioneering role in the food transition, as well as digital retail.
Carrefour 2030 has also featured inflection points and even a number of strategic shifts. For the first time, a quantified target for market share gains. For the first time, we have a commitment to improving our price competitiveness. We're making a strategic bet on AI's ability to disrupt all of our value chains. And finally, the group is refocusing on its three core markets and opening 20 new ones through franchising. None of what I have just announced will happen without those who make up the Carrefour community, our teams in our stores, our warehouses, our head offices, our franchise partners and their employees. We all share the same passion for our customers. We all fight for food quality and purchasing power, and now we share the same roadmap for the next five years.
Starting today, the challenge is simple: we need to execute fast, well, and we need to do it together, country by country, business- by- business, store by store. Carrefour 2030 is starting now. Thank you.
Merci beaucoup. Avec mes collègues pre-
Thank you very much. Now, with the rest of the leadership team in the room today, let's take your questions. I'd like to remind you that there's a special session for financial analysts right at the end of this press conference.
Oui. Bonjour, Monsieur Bompard, Jerome.
Hello, Jérôme Parigi, Elsa, thank you for your presentation. I have a question regarding market share gains. The target for France, +25% for France. At the moment, your market share is 22%, so 3 points, 3-point increase in less than four years. How do you intend to achieve that? Are you planning on M&A, growth, considering the fact that the market is now being reorganized?
Well, thank you, Jerome, for your question. This is what we're planning to do. We want to increase market share through organic growth, and that's what this plan is all about. Secondly, we want to fast-track growth formats, convenience stores, of course, as well as supermarkets, and also we want to grow our, our growth verticals. We also want seize opportunities for rallying under the banner.
We want to forge more alliances, and maybe there are assets that will be up for sales, and then we will consider making such an acquisition. We'll do it energetically, and our method has always been the same. We're very selective. We target growth formats, and we ensure that those growth formats will help us improve our operational profitability, because that's our compass. Whenever we engage in growth projects, it should help improve our profitability, but our balance sheet enables us to be active in all markets, including France, as well as other core markets.
Clo tilde Chenevoy, Republik Retail. I have a question regarding digitization. You've announced a partnership. How soon do you intend to embrace this digital transformation for hypermarkets and supermarkets? And what about the ROI for this technology?
You're generating value, but considering the fact that you need to invest in this technology, do you have visibility when it comes to the anticipated gains?
Now, let me say a few words. Obviously, we didn't wait for this partnership with Vusion before we embraced digital technologies to upgrade our stores. And irrespective of the jobs concerned, whether replenishing the shelves or working the cash register, we're using technology across the board. But this partnership with Vusion is a paradigm shift. We are scaling up. This means that our stores are becoming smarter. A number of you have tracked the retail space longer than I have, but stores have improved. They've been optimized, but it's basically the same way of working, by and large, so there are inconsistencies, anomalies. There's always gonna be shortages, price errors.
Planograms can be unsatisfactory, and sometimes order picking is done manually. Vusion means the end of all of that. Thanks to Vusion, a store will be exactly similar to its digital twin, and we use data to improve every single process. When you reduce shortages as much as you can, when you reduce pricing inconsistencies as much as you can, when planograms are perfectly executed, when store picking processes are optimized for drivers using those digital technologies, what you realize that the productivity gains are huge. Now, I'm not gonna give you the ROI because the testing period is still underway, but the ROI is huge, and that's significant. Well, we worked with Vusion, we worked with their teams, and because we have an excellent relationship with Walmart, I asked my counterpart at Walmart whether my teams could spend time there, see how they're working.
When you talk to the head of Walmart, he'll say, "This is the biggest operational transformation our stores have ever undertaken." And we see the productivity gains that this has generated and also operational gains in stores. So this is a key aspect, and I'm firmly convinced that if we manage to do things right, if we maintain our level of energy, this transformation will revolutionize our stores. And this means additional sources of revenue because this generates data in real time for suppliers. So it's a major undertaking, and together with the rest of the leadership team, I'm firmly convinced that this will radically change our stores. And that's what our friends from Walmart are saying to us as well. Stores have become a digital replica. That's what we're doing, that's what we're testing, testing, that's what we will deploy.
I can see Olivier.
Okay, good morning, Alexandre. Three questions. First, on price, what's the right price gap with Leclerc? I'm talking store versus store, not drive, versus store. Next question: Atacadão opened two years ago in France. Does it have a future? If so, what is the potential? And third question, so regarding the number of retailers, today you have three independent retailers, three integrated retailers, Auchan, Casino, and you, and two discounters. So that's eight in total. So by 2030, how many will be left, you think?
Okay, first question, it was about price. Well, first, we significantly narrowed this price gap. After the hyperinflation period, we de-positioned ourselves slightly. Now, with the Distriprix Net index, we are between 3.5%-4%. So my ambition is to improve it every year. Well, it's important in what we shared with you today.
So there's Leclerc, but our customers do not just see Leclerc, and our customers actually see more stores when they walk around. You know it. You know the networks. Intermarché has many stores, for example, and we want to improve our competitiveness, compared to the market average every year. And that's a great commitment. For those of you who have been with us for a long time, you know that it's a strong commitment to improve competitiveness versus market average. We will not be a price maker. We do it with a lot of discipline, but we do need to improve our competitiveness because this is what supports our market shares, and this is how we can gain more market shares. Secondly, about Atacadão.
I'm very happy that we tested it on the French market, and it gives us a lot of information on categories that we did not know well and packaging that we did not know well. When we made this announcement, people asked us about the expansion plan, and we said, "Okay, we want to try it on the French market," and we're still experimenting on the French market. There's no development plan.
... and to date, even if it might change in the future. Third question, the French market. That's something that I discussed with financial analysts. There is this vision of the French market as an anomaly in Europe, something that's highly competitive, something that doesn't exist elsewhere, but it's not true. The French market has streamlined, has consolidated Leclerc, Carrefour, Intermarché. That's 2/3 of market revenue. So when we reach our goals in 2030, and I'm pretty sure that our friends at Leclerc will do the same thing, just the two of us will be 50% of the market. So the market is consolidated. When the market is consolidated, it is rational. It's not rational when it's not consolidated and you have players trying to lead aggressive strategies. It happened in the past, but now the market is more rational, more streamlined.
Now, to answer your question, how many players will there be in the future? I cannot answer this question, but it's not the most important thing, because if there's a small player that's still on the market, but that cannot really influence it, that's not the main point. For us, the most important thing is to be at 25%, and we want the market to function rationally without any irrational price war. That's the reality of the French market today. I think there was another question on this side.
Frédéric Carluer, Linéaires. A question about your partnership with Blachère, for fruits and vegetables at 200 corners in your stores. What will it bring to you, to this partnership, things that you cannot do at the moment? More discounted prices?
That's a great question. We tested it in 30 stores, and we can see that there is a true know-how. Blachère is one of the best in this industry, one of the best greengrocers, and we can see that when it comes to choosing the offering, managing the shelves constantly, this is really well done. And then you get higher NPS. So first, the weight of fresh products is higher, and the NPS is higher as well. So we decided to work with them at a larger scale, 200 stores, and we want to learn from their best practices, then we're going to roll them out. We want to rely on our teams because they're the ones in operations, but we want to use this very specific know-how. We want to roll it out.
Since I joined the company, I've been obsessed with using the Carrefour know-how, but I wanna be open-minded. We need to be open-minded because we want to improve. And players in the fresh products industry, the leader of the market and Blachère brought a lot to this industry. That's why we decided to forge this partnership with Blachère for these stores, with Bruno Quattrucci for Marché Frais. They have a specific know-how that we do not have or not at the same level, and we want to develop it.
Good morning, Bruno Monteyne. I would like to go back to the price topic and the fact you want to rely on the Distriprix index that we know very well. Are you going to be transparent on price gaps between drive and stores?
You know, that drive customers have specific offers. Basically, drive prices are lower than in brick-and-mortar stores at Carrefour. Will you be transparent on price gaps?
We are as transparent as our competitors, and of course, we rely on you to notice it, and I'm saying this in a very friendly way. We are as transparent as our competitors on this point. This Distriprix index is not perfect. No index is perfect, but we think it can capture, in a very granular manner, all the prices, discounts, promotions. It's a significant indicator that we want to publish every quarter, and we want to improve it. That's our commitment, and we'll do it as transparently as possible regarding gaps. But of course, I'm counting on you to report the gaps when you see them.
Hello, Magali Picard.
Elsa, I cannot see you. Okay, I can see you now.
I have three questions. Lease management, franchising, that's half of your revenue, 1/3 of the hypermarket's revenue. To what extent would you like to develop it for larger stores? Second question on hypermarket profitability. Recurring operating income is not great. It went down. How do you think the franchising system can contribute to improving it? Third question, Cora. In the annual results yesterday, we saw that Cora impacted the result negatively. When do you think you can go back to break even?
I'm sorry, can you repeat your first question?
Franchising.
So, we said a lot of things in these plans, especially in acceleration of franchising. For hypermarkets, what we're announcing is the... is for 2026.
We are going to continue the franchising system, 15 per year, and we want to keep seizing opportunities. So you have a list of stores that we are transferring. The second topic, so you, about your your second question, I think that what you're saying is not true, because the profitability of hypermarkets improved significantly since years ago. And this is also because of our franchising system. If we hadn't transferred more than 100 stores to franchisees, and I would like to recall that they were stores that had structural, financial challenges that had been losing money, sometimes a lot of money without any corrective plan.
So when these stores were transferred to franchisees, in almost all of the cases, we saw that revenue went up, profitability went up, and it contributes to the improvement of profitability of hypermarkets. That's not the only solution. It also works in the integrated stores, but it's also thanks to our franchising system. And we do have entrepreneurs who invest strongly in stores and who can really boost these stores, and it contributes to the improvement of the profitability of hypermarket. So we will continue to do that in 2026. Regarding Cora, you are right. It weighs on the 2025 annual results, but it's no surprise. Because starting midyear, we started changing the stores, and we're implementing the Carrefour business model.
So we lowered the prices, because there was a 6% gap with Cora. We added our own brands, and this has an impact on value, and of course, there are also logistical, natural factors. So last year, there were around EUR 95 million, so those are integration costs, pure integration costs, but now this is over. So that was really because we moved from one business model to another, so EUR 95 millions in integration costs. So what we see now, and it's actually good news, we see that since the end of the year, after we implemented all of this for two or three months, we are winning customers, market shares, and we're going back to growth, and it's continuing this year.
So our forecast for 2026 is that there are no more integration costs, and the EUR 95 million are behind us. What is left is the implementation of the business plan, of the commercial plan, that might be impactful at the beginning of the year, but the 2026 result for Cora will be positive, which means that Cora will contribute to the improvement of profitability next year. The result will be positive.
Sir?
Jérôme Parigi again.
Roger Metéreo again.
I cannot see you very well.
Three quick questions. The Distriprix price index, why did you choose this index, when there's another one that's used on the market by Leclerc, for example? It's their performance index for large stores. Then, you have a very ambitious plan, but there are questions regarding groups of franchisees. So what's your take on that?
You didn't talk about a lot about international countries. Spain delivers quite surprising performances. What about your market share gain goals for Spain?
Distriprix is not our index. It's an index that's published by Nielsen. What you can see with this index is that, well, it does not place us in the first position. That was not our purpose. But we want an index that captures the reality of competitiveness in a complex way. It's actually threefold. So you have everyday prices, loyalty programs, and discounts and promotions. So that's the reality of customer receipts. You see customers every day, and they never say, "Well, this is the index." But with a customer receipt, they can compare Carrefour to Leclerc or others.
So this index, I think, captures this complex reality with everyday prices. Of course, the other indexes are do exist, and I think they're good, but we want to have an indicator that better captures the reality of competitiveness. So that's your first question. Now, convenience stores for Carrefour are a great growth really. So I've been presenting this third plan, and I remembered that at the time, we were lagging behind our competitor, who was a leader for convenience stores. We were told that they had the most powerful formats, that they renewed the concept, but we actually took an amazing leadership on convenience stores in terms of market shares, revenue per square meter, and opened a few hundred stores last year, and we have 6,000 people who want to join us.
So we've never had as many applicants for franchising. And we also have master franchisees coming from other banners. So it's working very well, and it's accelerating. Now, we do have disagreements with a very low number of franchisees. Is it comfortable to be in disagreement with one franchisee or a small number of franchisees? No, it's... No, it's not pleasant. So there's a legal dispute. Our door is always open, and I hope that we can find an agreement with them. Sometimes we do find agreements with the representatives of such organizations, and that's what we want to do because we do not want our franchisees to be displeased with us. But we're talking about a few dozens people versus more than 500 convenience stores.
But even when there's a slight disagreement, we want to find a common ground and move forward. What you said about Spain is right. Spain is at the core of our scope. There is a combination of many positive factors in Spain. There are extraordinarily competitive hypermarkets, quite remarkable, with amazing locations. We're very unique on the market because the leader is very much focused on their own private labels, and we have a very broad offering. The know-how of the teams is great, and we fully master this convenience format, convenience stores. And you know that our ambitions to open more stores is great.
We're going to grow organically, and just as a segue with your previous question on the French market, if there are opportunities on the Spanish market to get more growth, we will reinforce our market shares through external acquisitions. That's what we did with Supercor and Supersol, and we will do it if opportunities arise. With the same analysis, so we will select these offers very carefully, and it needs to create value.
One last question, maybe?
Hello, Guillaume Isnard, Challenge Magazine. A question on French hypermarkets. They're the format that's suffering the most today, struggling the most. What are your solutions to revive the format? I know that there's an annual EUR 200 million envelope, so how is it going to be used to support these stores?
I do not really like the idea that the problem would come from the hypermarket format. And actually, the leader in the French market, well, they're not that small. They have large stores that work very well, and they're actually a hypermarket player. So hypermarkets have a role to play in our formats, but they need to be fully transformed. It's been the case already, and it's going to continue. So what are we going to do starting now? We are going to get growth everywhere we can find it. So let me explain. I think we may have been too static in our offering. Hypermarkets are a place where there should be innovation and new ranges of products.
In non-food products, but not only, sometimes we were a bit too passive faced with new trends, not trying to anticipate trends, and since last year, we launched pilots. So drugstores, double-digit growth, fragrances, double-digit growth, pet care products, double-digit growth, and we see that in a lot of new categories. For frozen good, it's a bit too constrained, but we work on pilot projects. When we work differently, we get double-digit growth. So there's growth in this market, and we should stop thinking that hypermarkets are struggling. No, hypermarkets that do not function well struggle. And actually, I worked on that when I joined Carrefour to see what happens. Sometimes it works, sometimes you really... If you reduce the surface area of a hypermarket, you lose.
So you drive past a hypermarket, you go to a mall, that's not what you expect from the offering. That's not what you want in terms of prices. You want to be surprised, you want to find innovations, and you can find that in a hypermarket. So we've been working on it for one year now. We're going to mainstream these concepts, and the EUR 200 million that you were talking about are going to be used exactly for that. It's going to improve the commercial concepts to help us roll them out. We're going to invest where commercial concepts exist. Talk about France, but it's what Spain is doing as well.
They develop specialized concepts that are amazing, and the idea is to get growth where it is, to focus on new product range, product ranges, and I think we've been too static. I admit it. So that's what we're going to work on, and of course, there's the Fusion program. It might seem a bit more technical, but as you can see, as consumers, it's not that technical when it comes to focusing on shortages, price consistency, planograms, optimized picking in stores, then, of course, it means additional revenue. So with all of these programs- ... we will contribute to supporting the hypermarket format.
Bonjour, Sophie Lecluse. My name is Sophie Lecluse. Please remind us, all combined the formats, so what is the share of franchisee stores in France? And also, what are your targets for 2030? Also, do you have Cora stores as part of the new LGs this year? And if so, how many Coras?
Franchisees account for 50% of revenue, and 100% of convenience stores, 80% of supermarkets, and under 40% for hypermarkets. So if you look at the number of stores that will be converted to supermarkets, so we'll jump from 25 - 40, and so the number for hypermarkets will grow, but I guess it all depends on the pace of migration.
Regarding the conversion to lease management, this, in France, we have a number of Casino stores and a number of Cora stores, but the list has not been finalized yet.
One last question?
Hello. Morgan Leclerc from L'Informé. I have a couple of questions. In your previous plan, the online sales target was EUR 10 billion for 2026, but the scope of the group has changed, so does that make a difference? And also, in terms of the cost of control plan you talked about this morning, you talked about streamlining efforts at HQ level. Is that your first plan for... I remember in 2018, there was a massive cost-cutting effort. So what's your plan now? Online sales have not grown as quickly as every expert said they would a couple of years ago. Remember, a couple of years ago?
People predicted that Amazon would win that battle, and there was a partnership with Casino. There were e-commerce players with huge market caps, and yes, there were really strong market trends. My objective back in the day was to board that train, which was leaving the station, but online sales did grow, but it grew more slowly than expected, and we grew faster than what I expected. So this means that our target for home delivery in 2030 is 40% versus 20% for drive, click, and collect, and we want to ensure leadership in terms of food sales in Brazil. So we have not achieved EUR 10 billion because we need to look at the underlying factors, and those aren't what we expected. So we are growing, but and faster than the market. Now, we want the growth.
We want the market to continue to grow faster because that means faster market share gains for us, but the market is not growing as quickly as we expected. So I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that we're still generating 20%-21% growth in online sales this year. And in absolute terms, e-commerce is still generating growth, but not as quickly as we expected in and around 2020. Now, getting back to your question, the changes are profound. When I joined the group, I believed right away, with every fiber in my body, that, our headquarters carried too much weight. It was way too complex, too much bureaucracy. Whenever I talked to suppliers, I talked to Philippe Houzé, whenever a vendor was trying to work with us, they said, "I had to meet a gazillion different people.
I had hundreds of different meetings." It's true, and this is why we decided to streamline HQ functions. Now, our approach is much more fine-tuned. Artificial intelligence we apply to our HQs, and this means that business- by- business, we need to look at streamlining opportunities because AI means improvement in processes, and sometimes we need to improve processes. That's what we're doing. So we're not announcing a major plan, but we are looking at each business in turn and each function, whether legal or HR or finance or trade, marketing, all of those functions are trying to use AI to improve their operations, to organize HQ the way that it should be organized to be future-proof. So we need to provide more services to stores, but this does not mean a massive announcement. No, that's not what we're doing. Thank you.
Thank you so much to everyone for attending today's presentation of our strategic plan. Carrefour 2030 starts today. Now, together with Matthieu, we'll now meet with financial analysts. Thank you for being here today.
Ça va, François? Bonjour. Bonjour. Bonjour. Ça va, vous allez bien? Pardon. Ça va? Ça va bien, Jeffries . Bonjour. Ça va? Ça va? Vous allez bien? Bonjour. Ça va? Comment ça va? Vous allez bien? Bonjour. Ça va? Tu te mets à gauche ou à droite? Je suis à gauche. C'était bien pour tes slides?
Okay. Allez. So hello again, everyone, and thank you for, for joining today. I'm very pleased to have the, this opportunity to spend time with you. For us, it was absolutely essential to have this dedicated session to put you at the heart of, the discussion we have today on this important day of Carrefour. This plan has been, I would say, shaped and influenced by discussions we have with you, we have, with, investors.
You've seen that we wanted to continue and to deepen our conversation, and to engage with you regularly on key topics, especially with a dedicated capital market day starting in June. So without further delay, I hand over to Matthieu for the presentation of the financial wrap-up, and then we will answer your questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Alexandre. So let's start with slide 61 of the deck that you got this morning, with the new format of our financial reporting. So we will now report on four distinct operating segments. First, we have France, Spain, and Brazil. So these are our three key engines of growth and profitability, and so they will be reported individually. Then other geographies, including Belgium, Poland, Argentina, will be grouped into a consolidated other countries segment. Romania is also part of this segment in the pro forma accounts that we provide this morning, but will be reported as assets held for sale in our 2026 publication as per IFRS 5. These three core markets are the powerhouse of the Carrefour 2030 plan and the focus of all our attention.
They represent 85% of net sales, but more crucially, they generated 99% of our recurring operating income in 2025. As far as other countries are concerned, our strategy is to favor dynamic asset management. We will continue to work on improving the operational performance in these markets, while keeping all options open, from growth to total or partial monetization. A single compass will guide our future decisions, maximizing value creation. Let's move one page to slide 62 to briefly look at why these three markets have a strong potential of growth and value creation. The French market has proven very resilient through economic cycles. It's one of the most concentrated markets in Europe, with the top four players representing 76% of the market, and further consolidation is underway. We discussed that earlier today.
All players in the French market have competitive but rational commercial behaviors. Hypermarket in France is the reference format. Hard discounters represent 10% of the market, and that's a number that is not growing anymore. So we will leverage on our strong number two position and our powerful brand. Today, we have the highest market share in more than 10 years, and so we will keep increasing this market share on a like-for-like basis, and potentially through opportunistic acquisitions, still remaining very selective. The dynamic of value creation will rely on the continuation of the recurring operating income improvement, which is at play since 2018, and Cora and Match, who will normalize their profitability. In Spain, the market is driven by macroeconomic tailwinds and margins, which are above European average.
Our position is solid, with clear leadership in hypermarkets and national brands. We will leverage our number two position on that market and our well-performing financial services. Brazil remains our primary growth engine. It benefits from positive demographics, a regular increase in average income, and the growing penetration of modern retail through new store expansion. In Brazil, we are the undisputed number one, powered by the price leadership of Atacadão and our unique financial ecosystem with Banco Carrefour. We will leverage this position to return to profitability levels we delivered in the recent past. Let's move to our real estate portfolio, which is slide 63 of the deck. So as you know, we view our real estate portfolio as a powerful engine of value creation. So we've decided to provide more visibility on the value of this portfolio and its geographic breakdown.
So we have asked over the past few months, leading real estate expert firms for independent value appraisals. It comes out that the value of our real estate portfolio for France, Spain and Brazil amounts to EUR 14.2 billion at the end of 2025. Over the past four years, the value of this portfolio has grown by EUR 2.8 billion or +25%. These EUR 2.8 billion value increase include EUR 1 billion of inflation, net of the negative impact of interest rates increase over the period, EUR 1.7 billion of acquisitions, of which EUR 1 billion in Cora, EUR 665 million in Grupo BIG.
As part of the regular asset rotation strategy, we have divested EUR 1.5 billion of real estate assets over the past four years, and in parallel, we invested EUR 1 billion in new projects, which is included in our annual CapEx envelope. So the net amount, so EUR 600 million, has fueled our net free cash flows through 2022- 2025. Last, our real estate projects have created EUR 0.6 billion of real estate value. This is approximately the value we have captured in our net free cash flow through the asset rotation. So moving forward, we will report this updated value, valuation of our portfolio on an annual basis. Our real estate strategy remains unchanged, with more real estate projects and a regular asset rotation to harvest the value creation.
It's expected to contribute between EUR 200 million and EUR 300 million to our net free cash flow annually, which is the same as magnitude as we did over the past few years. Let's turn now to net free cash flow statement on slide 64. Through our dialogue with investors, we've heard requests for more visibility on cash flow generated from retail operations and from real estate operations. So we've already provided these details for the past three years. But today, we're going one step further and decide to break down our net free cash flow into two distinct pillars. The first pillar is the retail free cash flow. So that will capture the pure cash generation from the business, driven by EBITDA, change in working cap, operational CapEx. And the second pillar is real estate free cash flow.
That will isolate the proceeds from asset disposals and real estate investments. The 2024 and 2025 net free cash flow statements in this new format are provided in the appendix to the press release. I'm sure you've seen that already. Let's turn to slide 65 on price in France. So as you've understood from Alexandre's presentation this morning, we will refer to the Distriprix Net price index to report on our objective to improve each year our price competitiveness versus the market. I will refer you to Nielsen methodology for details, but in summary, this is the most comprehensive price index. It includes all promotions and loyalty benefits offered to all customers. The only items not taken into account are personalized promotions and benefits.
The index, obviously, is limited to national brands, so excluding private label and fresh, and we understand that Nielsen will publish this index every quarter. We're regularly questioned about our actual price positioning in the French market. Today, we're providing details, which was page 15 of the slide deck. So as you see on FMCG and based on this Distriprix Net price index, Carrefour is tied for second place in the ranking of France's cheapest chains. As you know, fruits and vegetables are a key traffic and loyalty driver. Over the past few years, we have invested in our competitiveness, notably with our 10% loyalty discount, which is applicable across all formats, every day, and for all members. The outcome shows on the page that Carrefour delivers, by far, the most competitive offering.
So our strategy is clear: improve every year our competitiveness versus the market from this starting point. Now, let me walk you through how this plan translates into our financial performance. So our financial equation is summarized on slide 67. It's a standard model, I would say, for a well-performing retailer. So first, top line growth. As you've understood, Carrefour 2030 is a growth plan. Market share will accelerate organically, benefiting from all our, our initiatives, notably fresh price, the rollout of proven commercial concepts. Expansion in margin accretive growth formats, such as convenience store and Atacadão, will also fuel market share growth. Then margin expansion. The market average market share gain will generate, obviously, operating leverage, a positive operating leverage.
We have a proven track record of reducing costs year after year, and this trend will continue with a EUR 1 billion annual cost savings objective. Cost savings will be fueled by traditional levers, but also new ones, such as Concordis and more productivity at our head offices and in stores, thanks to technology. High-margin services will also accelerate, fueling the recurring operating income. Finally, a high cash conversion increase in EBITDA will allow for significant CapEx and an increase in net free cash flow every year. I'll come to this, back in a, in a minute. So, let's go now to our profitability target on slide 68, reaching a 3.5% operating margin by 2030. So this represents a 90 basis point improvement over the duration of the plan.
As you can see, we plan to increase recurring operating income and operating margin every year, and this increase will be fueled by each of our core markets. As you see on the right end of the page, France will be accretive to the group margin expansion. This is explained by a relatively low starting point in 2025, at only 2.4%, penalized by Cora and Match and the one-off integration costs. Cora and Match will normalize its profitability, and the historic parameter will keep increasing its profitability, as it has done over the past seven years. A word on Spain. Spain will also significantly increase its profitability, although it is starting at a higher level in 2025.
We expect profit growth to be fueled by the resilience of our operational model on historical formats, combined with a dynamic expansion in the convenience format, as well as our financial services. The macroeconomic backdrop should also be a support in Spain. Finally, Brazil. It also has significant upside, with a modest margin as a starting point in 2025, and a Brazilian consumption which is expected to normalize. Commercial success at Atacadão, in-store and online, cost discipline, process simplification, and retail media should support profit growth. So we expect these drivers to support the groups as soon as 2026. In that frame, we anticipate 2026 recurring operating income margin to grow by at least 25 basis points versus 2025. The profile and the main priorities of our CapEx policy is presented on slide 69.
A few remarks: First, the annual envelope is increased versus the past few years. Then there are less countries to be addressed, and finally, we will target more CapEx to our three core markets. So for France, Spain and Brazil, this is a significant increase in CapEx versus past years. Our key priorities are well identified. We're allocating EUR 200 million per year, specifically to modernize our store network in France and roll out our proven commercial concepts. Our technology and data envelope includes EUR 100 million dedicated to AI, and notably, the rollout of Vusion's technology. And then we will be dedicating EUR 200 million per year to decarbonization and energy projects. This covers energy efficiency, solar panels, which lowers our energy bill and carbon footprint.
Let's turn to slide 70 and our objective to generate EUR 5 billion of net free cash flow over the 2026-2028 period, with a net free cash flow growing every year. Let me first highlight that EUR 5 billion for a group worth EUR 11 billion of market capitalization is a significant cash yield of roughly 15% per year. Then the net free cash flow growth will be mainly driven by EBITDA growth. As you see on the slide, most items are expected to be relatively stable over the plan, offering a very high EBITDA to cash conversion. A word on 2026. 2026 net free cash flow objective is to grow over 2025 number of EUR 1.565 billion.
That will be fueled by EBITDA growth, consistent with the recurring operating income objective, that I just mentioned, including, obviously, the absence of integration cost at Cora and Match in 2026. It will also benefit from a reduction in cost of debt of EUR 75 million, following the refinancing in 2025 of BRL-denominated debt. All this should more than offset the increase in CapEx. Let's now go through our capital allocation policy, which is presented on slide 71. The first item is our commitment to invest into our business. Then, Carrefour has a strong balance sheet today. It is rated BBB with a stable outlook by S&P. We think this strong balance sheet is a key asset to conduct our transformation with serenity. So we set the objective to maintain this rating and its stable outlook. Then comes ordinary dividend.
Carrefour's ordinary dividend has significantly increased over the past few years, with an average annual growth rate of 15% since 2021. The payout ratio has also increased to reach approximately 60%, an attractive level when compared to peers. We are now aligning our dividend policy to industry standards, referring to a payout ratio. We aim it to be between 50% and 60% of our adjusted EPS. This places us at the top end of the sector, and so with this policy, we plan to increase our ordinary dividend every year. Finally, the board of directors will decide on additional returns to shareholders in the form of special dividend or share buyback each year based on the financial situation of the group and its outlook. I will not comment on pages 72 and 73, which are in the deck.
They wrap up our financial targets and the investment case for reference and for some of your clients. As we presented this morning, Carrefour 2030 is a growth plan aimed at driving sustainable performance and value creation. I thank you for your attention. Alexandre and I are now ready for your questions. So if you want to ask a question, please raise your hand and a microphone will come to you. If you're following us online, you can send your question to Sebastian Valentin, who will read them in the room here. We have a first question here.
Good morning. François Digard from Kepler Cheuvreux. First, on investment, please, on your CapEx plan, the previous plan was already, I think, to reach EUR 2 billion per year of CapEx. What has changed, and what makes you confident to be able to deliver on this CapEx? More precisely, on the VusionGroup investment partnership you have announced, the EUR 150 million of investment on your side, is it only in France, only in hypermarkets? Because one could have thought that it could be more for with Vusion. Thank you.
So, on CapEx. On entend quand je parle? Oui, c'est bon.
Oui.
Pardon. On CapEx, so the number this year is lower than this one, which is related mainly to the fact that the pace of CapEx in the countries that were supposed to be non-core has been reduced this year.
... and so, we will come back to a level between EUR 1.8 billion-EUR 2 billion. With a number of countries limited. When we launched the previous plan, we have nine countries, and now we will focus the CapEx on three countries, Spain, Brazil, and France, and with very clear vision on where we will invest. We will invest in the modernization of the commercial concept in hypermarket. We will invest on tech data on the AI, we will invest on Vusion. Of course, there are other sources of CapEx, but the new elements are this one. Coming to Vusion, you're right, and it's an important program, EUR 150 million.
It is limited today to France. So it's for hypermarket in France, which means that things can move. If we are very satisfied with the first steps, things can evolve in other countries and so on and so on. But today, the program of EUR 150 million is limited to France on hypermarket.
Hi, Frederick Wild from Jefferies. Thank you for taking my questions and the presentations. So my first question is just about maybe there's, to my eyes, a bit of an inherent tension within some of your guidance, committing to those margin expansion in France over the next few years, and at the same time committing to improving your price perception. If the market, say, turns and say, you know, Leclerc does another round of price investment or something else happens, which would you prioritize? Would you prioritize the margin expansion or the price investment? And my second question is, as I'm sure— Oh, sorry, did you want to go and I'll... Shall I continue?
No. No, no.
As I'm sure many will want to do as well, dive into the building blocks of that margin expansion for the group. I guess the first question I've got is: How much is retail media going to play a part in that margin expansion over the next few years? Thank you.
Thank you. In reality, we don't see any tension or contradiction in the two objectives. The reality is, what we have to do is to deliver a high level of cost savings, more than EUR 1 billion, fueled also by Concordis on AI, on productivity, to fuel the price competitiveness. When we fuel the price competitiveness, we gain market share. That's the way it has been working for the last two years, very regularly. As you see, we don't accelerate, we continue to follow the same line. EUR 1 billion, price competitiveness that has been improved by two, so we are now at the level that presented Matthieu, 3.5, 3.6 behind the leader. And we are capable to take the two commitments.
We want each year to improve the price competitiveness compared to the average market, and to gain market share and to have profitability. And these two objectives are perfectly aligned. There's no contradiction at all, because when we do that, we get market share, there's the operating leverage, and we have a virtuous circle. And you have to take in mind. And so I know that sometimes things have been said about the French market, but the reality is that the French market is rational, as the other countries. The only moment where you can see different type of things were during the hyperinflation, because when hyperinflation was around 15, the strategy of the group, and particularly Leclerc, was different.
But in a normalized inflation between 0%-2%, everybody is rational. Everybody has costs. Everybody has a profitability to do. Even an entrepreneur, we have franchisee. They want to be profitable also. So the reality is that the French market is rational, is more and more rational. I was telling previously that us, Leclerc, on Intermarché, and if I add U, we account for 75% of the market. And the market was irrational when there were some small players, Casino, for example, in the previous decades, that trigger off a battle. But that's not the case. The market is rational. It doesn't mean that there's no competition. It's very competitive, like in other market.
There's a competition, like in U.K., like in other countries, there's a competition, but there's no irrationality. So as there's no irrationality, what we have to do is cost savings at a high level, improve the purchasing power conditions, market share gains, accelerating on the growth of proximity. And it's absolutely in line with the objective of profitability and the objective of profitability that Matthieu presented.
Second question was on retail media. So you saw the objective to double the size. So today it's fairly limited. Alexandre said it this morning, the market has taken off very slowly versus what we had in mind when we launched Unlimitail two and a half years ago.
We look at it in the U.S., we see how impactful it is on Walmart's number. We are positioned as a leader there in France and also serving other players. So we have the best platform. The market is slow. When the market accelerates, you know, it's going to benefit to us. So we have quite confident, we think it's a modest ambition to just double over the coming three years, so it will have a limited impact in the number. If the market accelerates further, that would be good news for us versus competitors.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you. Two questions for me, if I may. Sorry to be potentially a bit sarcastic, but I will try. You're talking about price investment now, but you've been there for seven, eight years now. So it appears like you discover something new. I'm a bit harsh here, but what has changed really, you know, in your view, why not making that comment, you know, seven years ago to say, "Okay, we're not good in prices. We are going to be consistent." It doesn't seem to have been, so now it seems that you are committed to that. So what has really changed there? And with that question, do you really think the market is rational? Because we could also have a view where you have been benefiting from weak players, but now they're gone, so potentially it's going to be more challenging going forward.
So what is your view on that? The last question is just about the lease management model. Is a plan to have a store manager getting the store and after a few years moving to franchise? If so, how many stores have moved from lease management to franchise over the last six years?
Thank you. I want to assure you that I've not discovered that price competitiveness is important in this market. If you have in head, and I'm sure you have, what we have done on price competitiveness, you would probably remember that we have made the way, the first part of the plan till in hyperinflation. We were around 7% or 8%, where was reduced to 4%. Till the up, hyperinflation, we were on this road. Suddenly, there was this hyperinflation that we have not known for 50 years. With hyperinflation, more than 25% in two years on food. At this moment, there has been an offensive of Leclerc, and we have not reacted as soon as we should have.
So we have widened the gap. And so in the last two years, we have invested a lot to come back to the previous territory, 3.5, with Leclerc and number two and number three in the market. What is new in this plan is not the fact that I've discovered that price competitiveness is important, but is the fact that I want that we commit on that. On, and I think it's something important for you to be sure that the question of your colleague, we don't do the result at the end of the year with a lack of price competitiveness just because we have a quarter—we are late on a quarter. So that's why this commitment is important.
We have thought a lot about that, because we were sure that we can do without the commitment. But as I understand your question, we decided to say, okay, we want to tell to the market, this index has to improve year after year. And that's the commitment. And it's very new for Carrefour. Not only since I arrived, but you know, in the last two decades, we have moved a lot. This time, you have the starting point, and we want to improve compared to the average level each year. On the players, first, these competitors are still there today. And secondly, for me, when I analyze the French market, when there was irrationality, that was triggered by small players in the French history.
So I don't say that the market is not competitive. It is competitive. I don't say that, Leclerc and Intermarché are not good competitors. They are good competitors, but they are rational. And as they are rational because they are entrepreneurs, it's not because you are entrepreneurs that you like losing money, on the contrary, when I discuss with my entrepreneur. You know, sometimes I heard that, "Okay, but you know, in the French market, it's so different because we are entrepreneurs." But what is different for an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur, that's not because he's not listed, that he doesn't want to have profitability and free cash at the end of the year. My franchisee, they put out a lot of pressure for having profitability on cash at the end of the year.
So it's exactly the same thing for them. Do they have costs? They have costs. So the reality is that they would behave in a rational way, competitive. And with this program, we are absolutely convinced that we are capable to compete with them in good conditions. And because we have this program of cost savings, because we have this growth engine with proximity, because we have price competitiveness, all that fuel our competitiveness, our market share gains. That's really the way we think about this program.
... maybe to complement on that, we've had many disruptors over the past 20 years. Over the past 20 years, discussion was about, okay, how are German hard discounters disrupting your model? Will you be able to maintain your margin, your price level, and so on?
The outcome of that is that today, this is not disruption anymore, okay? This is 10% of the market, these German discounters. It's not growing, so we have addressed that, and so there is no disruption. It's been a threat. Today, it's not a threat anymore. Then we had disruption from e-commerce players, Amazon buying Whole Foods in the U.S. Just remember what it was, you know, in 2017.
Okay, they're coming. They're disrupting. How are you going to respond?
How are you going to maintain your level of profitability with disruptors who have raised billion of capital increase, who can lose as much money as they want in a market share building model? How are you going to to fight against these disruptors?
Today, they're all dead. No, there is no disruptor in our industry. E-commerce is done by traditional players like us and our competitors. So I think we are at a very interesting moment of the market and the industry, where the market, the French market, has consolidated, and there is no disruption forces that challenge and threaten our profitability pool. I think it's interesting to to put the framework for that new plan. Then lease management and franchise, so that's the model, okay?
The model we've had for probably 50 years coming from Promodès is to say you're an entrepreneur. Maybe you have little equity to invest day one, so you're going to take a store through a lease management contract. You don't need to bring a lot of capital day one, but you're a good retailer, and by operating this store through the lease management model, you're going to build up capital, and after a few years, you are able to buy the store and become a franchisee. This dynamic is still very much at play. It's easier to implement it when you're a one-person entrepreneur in the proximity format. We keep doing it in the supermarket format with bigger groups, and we also do it in the hypermarket format.
It's more recent. You know, we started this management just a few years ago, but that's exactly the model. The fresh banners that we announced this morning in hypers will be franchise operated.
Thank you. William Woods from Bernstein. The first one's on market share. Obviously, excluding M&A, your organic market share hasn't grown at kind of 75 basis points, which it needs to do to get to, to the way your target is for 2030. And you've shown that you're at kind of number two position on pricing in, on Distriprix and number one on fresh. Why do you think your market share hasn't been growing, and what's gonna change it going forward? And then the second, kind of linked to that, do you, do you think you will see that happen in 2026, or do you think this is more of a back-end loaded plan, where you need to build some momentum to, to get there to 2030? And then the second question is just on your margin targets.
Previously, you've been quite cautious about giving margin targets. Why do you think now is the right time to have them, and do you think that's the right way to manage the business internally as well? Thanks.
I take the first one. What we do think, it's that the starting point is good. We are starting from a strong effort that has been done in the last two years to install a good level of price competitiveness. I don't say that where we are, it's exactly where I want to be on the, in the, Distriprix Net, but it's a level that is positive for gaining market share in volume and in value. So we are starting from the good level, and so we are in a position to accelerate.
While it was not the case in the past, because we were lagging behind the competitors, so we are at a good level to accelerate. And so we—it's not as if we launched the plan and tell you, "Okay, I have four years of investment to come back in the competition." We are in the competition now. And so we are capable to gain market share organically starting now. Matthieu, do you want to say something? Well, the margin target is really a continuation of that. You know, we have more visibility. We've done already a lot in the past. And so just coming back, you know, on each country. In France, we've had this seven-year dynamic.
I mean, when we talked 3% margin a few years ago, many of you were doubting that we would be able to reach that point one day. And so we see that each year we increase the profitability. Each year, we increase the profit in France, and so we think it is deeply rooted in all our initiatives, e-commerce, move to franchise, cost reduction, private label, and so on. And so this is here to continue. And then we have Cora Match. We know we have a low starting point. We have synergies that are coming. We have one-offs that will disappear, and progressively, the ambition, I said it in my introductory words-...
is that Cora and Match progressively converge their profitability to where France, the rest of France, is. In Spain, we have a good model. We have invested heavily in price that did weigh on profitability in 2024. That was the year of price investment. We commented on that. Today, we have the best price positioning, very efficient model. The market is dynamic. We have further reservoir of growth with the proximity, so we really feel that we have it in our hands. And then Brazil, we've gone through the integration of Grupo BIG. It's been heavy duty. This is also behind us. We have the best performing model with Atacadão.
E-commerce, which is profitable in Brazil, has been an incredible success over the past few years, and we think it will keep developing. We just have a question mark on the macro in Brazil. That's probably... And so we think that the starting point is quite tough macro, with these very high interest rates, negative volumes of consumption, notably in the Cash & Carry market. So we think that if this normalizes, we can easily increase our profitability in Brazil, starting from what we find is a low starting point. 4% profitability margin in Brazil is quite far from the levels that we had in the past, so we think we have ample room to gain at least 90 basis points.
That's what we showed on the page. We think Brazil should be accretive to the operating margin group increase.
Rob?
Thanks for taking the questions. Rob Joyce at BNP Paribas. Do you wanna go, can we do one by one? Is that easier? First one, just in terms of the shorter term margin guidance. Sounds like if we look at Brazil in the second half of last year, it's gonna be hard to grow margins in 2026. Europe, Spain did very well, the rest of Europe getting less attention, so probably a similar performance in 2026 versus 2025 is probably best case. Means France is probably going to have to do 50 basis points of margin expansion or so to get to that 25 basis points at the group level. Is that right?
So let's indeed take them one by one. I think, Brazil, we've had the most difficult semester in terms of volume, and Alexandre said that we've passed the trough of the market pressure with very negative volumes. If you remember, volume started turning negative in June.
Mm-hmm.
So the beginning of the year was quite dynamic, and indeed, Q3, we had this minus negative mid-single digit volume. So that has put pressure on profitability. We see the trend improving, that materialized in Q4 with a better, still negative, but better dynamic on the volumes. And inflation has sharply decreased, notably commodities. You have a number of commodities which have decreased double digits, some of them - 30%. And commodities is a strong component of the basket of Atacadão, and a strong component of what the most modest households buy in Brazil. And so we think that that is giving back significant purchasing power to these households, and so that will benefit the trend in Brazil.
Then Europe, there's really two Europes. There is Spain, and you see the dynamic, and so we feel confident there. We've been penalized also by, you saw the numbers on Romania. Romania has been declining. Romania obviously will exit the perimeter, so that will be good. So we feel quite strong. Then in the other countries, you also saw some pressure on Argentina, where the profitability has decreased. GDP is back to positive. We think we've gone through the austerity measures impact, and here also we think the heavy part was in 2025. So confidence there.
And then France, underlying dynamic on the business, then rebound, both on technicals and business, from Cora and Match. Also, all these combine leads us to the guidance that we have given. You're right, we didn't give profitability guidance in the previous plan. We do, and we do short-term ones, so that's a message of confidence.
Okay, thank you. Second question, just thinking about the free cash flow, and you mentioned that 15% number. If I look at sort of 2025, we've got kind of EUR 1.3 billion free cash, EUR 800 million in dividends, but net debt goes up by EUR 200 million, so kind of EUR 600 million reached equity. I'm just trying to think about that EUR 5 billion, how much of that you think is gonna reach equity?
Again, so we have a ... we have a dividend policy, which I think is quite clear. We are starting roughly at 60% of payout ratio. We have given also a guidance of EPS growth. So dividend is set to grow each year. And then, we did not, we've not been specific. We left it to the board of directors to decide, you know. Obviously, net free cash flow will cover very significantly the annual dividend. And so, the board will decide annually what's the best use of this cash, analyzing the financial situation of the group, some potential opportunities, the outlook. So that will be taken into account into a year-by-year basis.
Okay. Thank you. And just one more. Just back to the philosophical question on the French market and the competition there. I guess 20 years of disruption, you mentioned, French margin has broadly halved over that period, and my perception more is that's been driven by Leclerc, Intermarché, Système U, and their pressure on the market. I guess, in terms of thinking about, is it rational? Was Leclerc rational to take all that margin hit in 2023, and what's to stop them looking for that market share again, again, they got there?
You know, the level of normative profitability of Leclerc that we don't perfectly know, because as you know, they don't release their results, but they give some elements on Michel-Edouard Leclerc. Personally, always say, well, is their average profitability is quite the same than the European leaders in the other countries. You know, they don't have a 1% or 2%, you know. They have the average level of profitability. That's exactly what put us on deciders to say, "Okay, we have to tell the market that we are capable to reach this level of profitability." We were at 1.5 when we launched the plan. We have known COVID, we have known hyperinflation, and so on, so on. We are at 3%, except Cora.
We have doubled this level of profitability in the recent years, and we don't see any reason in the French market itself why we couldn't be able to continue the road. That's why Matthieu presented the fact that France will contribute at its fair share to the improvement of the profitability. Whatever is the French market, that would continue to behave in a rational way, and we are absolutely convinced of that.
Thank you.
Thanks. Thank you. It's Lizzie Moore from Citi. Just had two questions. So firstly, you've mentioned, you're looking to accelerate the international franchise expansion plans. I was just wondering if you could give some more color on how you intend to drive that expansion, and also the starting point you're coming from at present to get to, the number one position worldwide and in Africa. And then also, if you could possibly quantify how that contributes to your group margin target. Thank you. And I have a second question, but maybe we go one by one.
No, you can, you can ask the second one.
Oh, perfect. Thank you. So then, in terms of the real estate free cash flow, you've mentioned EUR 200 million-EUR 300 million per year. I was just wondering if you could expand on the key sources of that, including in which geographies you're looking to crystallize value in. Thank you.
Thank you. On the first question, we have developed in the recent years a fantastic savoir-faire in Franchise International in opening new countries. It is the proof of the quality of the brand, the worldwide resonance of the brand, the savoir-faire of the teams, their capability to accompany entrepreneurs in different countries. Today, we have around 42 countries, so it means that we will add around 20 countries in the future. We have many calls of entrepreneurs, of retailers in many geographies, especially in the African continent, to open franchise. And for us, it's a fantastic activity because we develop our presence, we develop our savoir-faire, our brands, we sell our private brands.
It gives us some optionalities for the future according to what happened in this country. So that, that's really a savoir-faire. It is not material in terms of figures, so we don't have any particular objectives on that. It remains limited. But it's really a growth perspective that is important for our brand, that is important for our purchasing conditions, and that offers us some optionality for the future.
Real estate. So, you know, as part of the previous plan, we said, you know, Carrefour is many businesses. It is retail, it's financial services, it's real estate, and we want all these engines to be working to create value. And so we launched many projects in real estate, and we started to rotate slowly. We sell roughly EUR 500 million each year for a portfolio of EUR 14 billion. This is 3%, so it's slow rotation, in order to harvest the value creation. And so we wanted to share with you this morning the value of the portfolio. I think it's important for investors, but also how this portfolio has evolved.... I read some notes saying this is fake cash flow.
It was said in a smarter way, but you're just selling some assets of the group in order to milk your cash flow. This is fake cash flow. Today, you're understanding, and I hope that it gives more clarity that we're not selling and divesting the real estate portfolio. It's the contrary. The portfolio has increased EUR 2.8 billion. We have only cashed in EUR 600 million, okay? So we've not even cashed in a fraction of the value that has been created. So we intend to keep doing that, harvesting the value created by our projects. So what are the geographies? We're very cautious about what we do.
We always make sure that when we sell real estate, we don't put a given store at a lack of competitiveness position versus competitors. So when I have a Leclerc across the street, if the Leclerc owns the real estate, we're gonna keep our real estate because that's how the market works. We don't want to have the burden of a rent, whereas a competitor wouldn't have the burden of rent. But when you say that, there's a number of countries and formats where the market is renting. In Brazil, the market is renting. In smaller formats, Super Proximity, the market is renting. In Spain, the market is renting. Probably France, Hypers, the market is owning. Auchan is owning its real estate, Leclerc is owning its real estate. So, then we have more real estate projects.
We have more expansion, where we buy the real estate and create value from real estate. In Brazil, when we expand in Brazil, you have a field, we buy the field, we create an Atacadão store. We create significant real estate value by doing that. The market is renting, so after a few years, when we have created that real estate value, we can monetize, harvest that value by doing a sale and leaseback. So portion coming from Brazil, I think that's a big part, then Spain and France for the rest.
Thank you.
Yes, Geoffroy?
Thank you. Geoffroy from Oddo. One question on the building blocks of the French margins, which is set to grow higher than the group average. I know you don't disclose margin by format, Hyper, Proximity, Super, but there were articles mentioning that the hypermarket were negative at EBIT level and that the Proximity was extremely profitable. What would drive, apart from the, let's say, Cora ramp up, what would drive the margins in France? Is it more fixing an unsatisfactory level at hypermarket? Is it going, I would say, further on franchise, on Proximity, or what can you say about that? Thank you.
I would say all of that. So half would come from Cora. We have presented what would happen for Cora in 2026. And after the model is really to accelerate on convenience, to develop franchise on market. And you've seen that we've accelerated the pace of franchise in Carrefour Market. We are convinced that to deploy new families in our hypermarkets, parapharmacy, perfumery, and so on and so on, is triggering a high level of growth, and we see that. We have pilots that we have developed in the last two years, and we clearly see figures, a growth with two figures, so it contributes.
The development of Vusion, and I was speaking about that previously, but you have to see Vusion as something that would able to optimize the operation in the stores. The reality is that our operations in the store are not optimized. So when you manage well the price, when you manage well the shortage and so on, you contribute to the improvement of hypermarket profitability. So all these block will contribute to that, fueled by cost savings, fueled by what we do with Concordis, fueled by our capability to gain market share. But that's really a comprehensive program.
Is there one more significant than the other?
Cora, for the first time. Yeah, exactly. Sebastian, we have a question from people in the distance.
Yes, good morning. We've received a certain number of questions. I will start with a few questions from UBS about group margin in 2026. You mentioned 25 basis point increase in margin. Which markets drive this? And same question about the 2030 plan.
So I think on the 2030 plan, we have a slide and we discussed that. Now on 2026, so obviously, I think the moving parts are quite clear. So we have this rebound from Cora, both the technicals and the improvement of the profitability. Then we have the underlying business, which is set for further profitability increase. Then Spain has a very strong dynamic. Clearly, macro is supporting over there. So we feel confident. And then we have Brazil. A year that didn't grow, and we decreased profitability by seven basis points.
Again, as I answered to, to Robert here, we think that, that macro has, has turned the corner, and that we will, we will get some, some tailwind there. So, we really see in 2026 and for the plan, all three core markets contributing to the, the, the increase in, in profitability.
Second question from UBS on free cash flow. EUR 5 billion cumulative free cash flow over 2026-2028. If you adjust for, let's say, EUR 750 million of real estate, that means 4.2-4.3. Can you confirm this, and can you give any idea of the shape of this?
Between 200 million and 300 million of real estate. That's the framework. We said that net free cash flow will grow each year. We're clear that it will grow above EUR 1,565 million, which was the 2025 number in 2026, and it will grow each year thereafter.
Thank you. We're gonna switch to a couple of questions from Barclays. First one, the real estate valuation seems to only cover the core markets. How much value is there in the other countries?
So we're just disclosing core markets. You know, this is core. This is where we focus our energy and investments in the years to come. So we did not implement the full value for the other markets, so we're not disclosing that.
Okay, last questions. Guidance from net free cash flow is inclusive of real estate activity, but you have now helpfully provided guidance on real estate contribution. The yield is still well above 10% when stripping out real estate cash flows. How conservative are you, are your real estate activity assumptions?
Well, you know, we have a good control, so, you know, we want to harvest, you know, regularly, the value created. So, we—I think we have good control on that.
That's all the questions we have online.
Last one, maybe from-
You have a last one, Rob?
Christian first.
Christian.
Yes.
Rob, you have a last one?
If you don't mind.
I don't mind.
Yes. Thank you. One question about the asset review. The asset review began a year ago. There have been a rumor about Argentina and Poland versus around half, and now 25 accounts are closed. So my question is, is the sales process still underway, or is it stopped for a while? And the second question is about credit and financial service. Is this business a core business again? There was some question about it. So what is the conclusion of the asset review? Thank you.
Thank you. On the first one, I'm sure you would join me telling that we have worked a lot in this year on the country review. As you can imagine, it's long process and difficult process, and we have managed both to reinforce our position in Brazil, to sell 7% of Carmila, and to exit very difficult country, as you know, that was Italy, and to find a good entrepreneur for our activity in Romania. The review is now over, and we have two type of countries: the core, I would come back, it won't come back, and the three other countries. In the three other countries, the feeling we have today is that the offers we have received doesn't express the potential value creation that they have.
The priority in this country is to improve the operational activity. We will have a very dynamic asset vision. It means that no doors are closed, but the priority for the teams in the country is really to improve the operational, to leverage our value creation and to improve that, and we will see what happens in the future. As far as financial services, you know, they, they've been part of the review. We said it was a broad review. This activity has gone through, you know, as an industry, through difficult moments when we've had this increase in interest rates to fight against inflation, which has squeezed the financial margins.
We mentioned that purchasing power has been fragilized, and so the cost of risk in the industry has increased. That was 2022, 2023. We're in a very good dynamic at the moment on financial services. We have improved our performance in 2025 there, and we think we have very good control of the model, and we set a strong ambition this morning of growing 40% the number of customers. So, we're monitoring the dynamic and the situation, so no conclusion, but we keep running and investing into this business.
Rob, the last one? Except if there's a new one.
... Thanks very much. Make the most of my trip to Massy. So I've got two of them. One on franchising. In terms of that margin improvement we've seen, how much would you attribute to the shift towards the franchise model? And the second one is just thinking about Vusion. How much of the French margin improvement are we expecting to be driven by Vusion? And why won't competitors have similar technology over the next few years? Thanks.
For franchise. So, you know, why has the increase in profitability been so regular regardless of the environment, okay? Covid, hyperinflation. Because it's a series of initiative. So, the move to franchise is one, it's one among others, among private label, among e-commerce, that has improved, among reducing head offices, improving productivity, working on logistics. So it's just one among many other levels. So it's a modest contribution. That's how I would qualify it. But it's an important one. When all these levels, we don't rely on one level, but they're all important.
For Vusion, we have been impressed. Some teams are-- we have had a very good collaboration with Walmart, and before taking the decision of investing on this technology. We have been investing, by the way, Walmart has implemented this technology and by the level of return on investment they have with that. Why? Because the reality is that it tackles really inefficiency of our processes in the stores. So it's quite difficult today to give you any more detail, because we are starting the implementation with Villabé, that you've just seen. But we are very confident about the fact that it would have a strong effect on the profitability, the efficiency, the revenue of our hypermarket.
Last one, François, and then-
François, last one.
Merci, Rob.
Thank you very much. To take this one, François from Kepler. There is a level of, let's say, lack of confidence, apparently, seeing the share price today. Notably, maybe the market share gains targets, 300 basis points, more or less, so 5 basis points per month by the end of the plan. How could you help us to understand how it is feasible? Notably, is there in the past where it was more flattish and we were happy to see you stabilizing the market share? How is it possible to understand that in the past, maybe some movements, like the private label increase that has cost you in terms of value market share, is now a bit behind? And so some tangible elements to help us believe you in this target. Thank you.
Sure, Paul.
We increased more than 200 basis points in the previous plan. So we have a 300 basis point objective, so that's where we're coming from. Clearly, stronger strong ambition on organic market share gains, and I think there is many initiatives in the plan, including, you know, the price investments and the CapEx in the stores. There is clearly more money there. And so again, a mix of organic and we will look with a lot of discipline at potential small acquisitions, if they fit our model and if we see value creation potential there. So keeping a very disciplined approach. Just to conclude on that, and because it's a very important question.
Now, when you look about when we launched the program at the beginning, and which has enabled us to double the profitability in France, the private brand was clearly dilutive at the beginning. We were launching e-commerce, we were nowhere, and it was the profitability was terrible. We have no purchasing alliance, so we were buying by ourselves, and we were under competitive at this moment. So we have developed all that. We have worked on all that, not in a day, let's take the purchasing alliance. First, we have developed our European purchasing alliance. Now we have a European alliance with other colleague. So all that, we have had these operational objectives starting from almost zero on that. So clearly, it was not really cheap.
And in spite of that, we have been able to make the way from 1.5%- 3% profitability in France. Same thing for the price competitiveness. Now we are starting with all that relative. On all that, we are on e-commerce capable to contribute to the profitability. We have the price competitiveness. The private label is the leader private label, so. And we have the purchasing alliance, which is in place, which to negotiate for the first year, this year. So we are absolutely not in the same position in the past. We, we're really starting with a good level of pace.
That's why we are so confident that we have the conviction that we will deliver both the market share improvement, the profitability that we announce, while maintaining the price competitiveness.
Merci beaucoup.
Thank you.
Thank you. Merci.
Thank you. Thank you for coming to Massy. Merci!