Very good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of our strategic plan, Renouveau 2028. I'm delighted to be with you today with our CFO, Angélique Cristofari. I will start the presentation with our strategic plan. Angélique will then take us through the numbers and present our financial outlook, and I will close with some final remarks before we answer your questions. Before presenting our new strategic plan, I would like to look back over the eight months since the change of shareholders and the implementation of the new governance structure in March 2024. We arrived with a clear mission for the new Casino, obviously, based on three watchwords: restore, recover, and grow. It's a long-term project, as you can see on the chart, what we initiated on day one. As I've already said, we got off at a flying start.
Having originally joined the project end of June 2023, I lost no time in starting work with my fellow executive committee members. I was appointed on 27th of March at 9:00 P.M., and as of 9:10 P.M. , my management team had been appointed, and we were poised to implement a restructuring plan along with certain very specific actions. Since then, we have successfully completed three major restructuring projects, starting with the financial restructuring that you know well. In the crucial first step carried out in April, we wiped off EUR 5 billion in debt and secured a EUR 1.2 billion injection of equity. This will enable us to make the investment needed to secure the group's long-term future and support its development. I'll come back a bit later on this.
Besides the financial restructuring, we operate a second one, the managerial restructuring, as much as important, implemented as planned in two carefully timed phases. The first phase, carried out in April, consisted of an appointment of a new management team. The team is made up of seasoned executives with a good knowledge of the group and the retail sector as a whole, who are recognized experts in their respective areas. This was the team that carried out the initial work needed to restore the group and, as well, ensure business continuity. The second phase has been completed in the last few weeks. In line with the strategy that I'm presenting today, we have decided to change the Monoprix and Naturalia governance structures and have put the finishing touches to the new group purchasing department, streamlined and headed by an appropriate team.
Organizational restructuring designed to adapt the group to its new scope. We have completed the sales of 425 hypermarkets and supermarkets. That disposal obviously has consequences, human consequences first and foremost. I would like to spare a thought for all our employees affected by the employment protection plans. We recently signed the necessary agreement, which we have negotiated in a climate of a constructive dialogue, and I would like to reiterate that we remain committed to the objective of limiting the number of redundancies while ensuring the continuity of our business. The disposal also has operational consequences in the shape of a completed overhaul of our logistics organization. A project of this magnitude necessarily creates temporary difficulties, but it was unavoidable, unfortunately, and we did it, and our service level, as of today, is back to normal.
Alongside this project, allow me to highlight we have managed to ensure the continuity of our business and have already achieved some major successes. I'm referring, for example, to the launch of a new Oxygène concept at Franprix, the launch of a Monoprix non-food e-commerce platform, the launch of a new brand platform at Cdiscount, the signing of a major partnership with Sherpa and TotalEnergies, and the completion of a purchasing alliance with our new Aura Retail purchasing unit with Intermarché and Auchan. In summary, we have lost no time in implementing all the priority projects, and as you can see on this slide, in accordance with the planned timeline. As of today, 14th of November, we've done everything we wanted to do, and we are where we wanted to be.
Thanks to all of this work, we are now ready to embark on the new plan with the rollout and operational implementation of Renouveau 2028 plan, which is all about execution. The group has undergone a profound transformation, and I'd like to start by reminding you what the new Casino represents today. The new Casino employs 25,000 people as of today, and it's headed as it said, head office and in-store. The new Casino represents EUR 13 billion in gross merchandise volume based on 2023 figures. The new Casino consists as well of 7,700 stores across France, with a very strong position in some major cities and an extensive presence as well in rural areas. Lastly, 83% of the new Casino stores are franchised, an important point that I will discuss in more detail later.
Looking beyond the figures, the new Casino is, above all, a group with a new, more cohesive business scope, and I'm insisting on this. First of all, it's a group of brands and not a group of formats. Seven well-known brands that are both unique and complementary: Casino, Cdiscount, Franprix, Monoprix, Naturalia, Spar, and Vival. Second, it's a convenience store group. We have withdrawn from out-of-town and large retail store business by selling our hypermarkets and supermarkets to Auchan, Carrefour, and Intermarché, as you know, and are now focused on convenience, which is called proximity in France. Today, 42% of people in France live less than 10 minutes away from a Casino Group brand store. The store at the right size for our customers with an average surface area of 309 square meters. We are the leader in convenience retailing in France already.
One out of every two convenience stores in France is a Casino Group store. The strategic focus is a major strength for our group. Our strategic focus is also an advantage because convenience stores are popular among French customers. As these figures show, 85% of French people surveyed favor the word convenience as a positive connotation, and 79% of them feel a connection with at least one brand or a banner. Last but not least, 80% feel that convenience stores provide very useful services for cities, villages, and neighborhoods. It is also aligned with consumers' changing habits. Consumers now buy food on a more regular basis with a specific objective in mind: dinner, out-of-home catering, last-minute purchase, day-to-day shopping.
Although the average household annual expenditure on staple products has increased significantly over the last few years, the average spend per basket has fallen in tandem with a rise in purchasing frequency. In 10 years, the sector has created 2,300 new convenience stores in France. The 88% figure that I just mentioned is very important. Why? Because it confirms my point. Being positioned in convenience retailing, it's a major advantage because it's also a market that responds to a significant societal challenge. The unmet need is clear. One third of French people live in rural areas and have to travel on average 15 km to do their shopping, with 21,000 villages having no stores at all. For several years now, efforts have been made to revitalize rural areas.
Through our positioning, we are contributing to those efforts, but we want to go even further in line with our belief that our stores have a key role to play. Our convenience retailing strategy embodies our commitment to helping to meet this societal challenge, which also exists in towns and cities where many people suffer from social isolation. Convenience is not a format, I told you already. It's a way of doing business that takes four aspects into account: geographical convenience, close to where consumers live, the functional convenience, it's having the right product and the right service at the right time, and convenience stores are open early morning, closing late at night, and open seven days a week. Relational convenience means how to welcome, to be attentive to consumers when they close the door and enter in the store.
Last but not least, emotional convenience, which is to be committed to common values. We see that consumers, they are not purchasing products to any store. They are purchasing a product that belongs to a brand. And we are well-positioned with all our brands to serve this aspect. To cover all these aspects as well, we are going back to basics and becoming shopkeepers, let's say, commerçants once again. The Renouveau 2028 has an ambition to make the new Casino the best of brands in convenience retailing. I'm insisting on the word brand, very important for us. As I said, it's not a format. It's all about branding. To start with, I'd like to talk to you about our playing field, where we want to grow, where are our growth drivers.
First of all, we want to accelerate our growth in food chain markets that are common to all our brands. We want to be the go-to choice for everyday food shopping, offering quality products, offering a diverse range that meets local needs, working on the price image with ranges tailored to different expectations, developing the private label assortment and product innovations. Second, and the one where I would like to emphasize our future strategy, we want to become a major player in quick meal solutions, particularly, obviously, in urban areas. They're offering a range of products suited to all consumption occasions: breakfast, lunch, snack times, dinners, and increasing our market share relative to fast food and takeaway operators, which are our main competitors in this aspect. I'd like to stress this point because I have made a strategic priority. There is a huge potential.
Just look at the queue outside in bakeries every lunchtime and the growing number of new outlets offering all types of food. And we have everything we need to make our mark there. We have the location, obviously. We have the purchasing power to do so. We have local teams offering pleasant and attentive service already. And we are ready to accelerate in this market strongly. First, sorry, we want to be the leader in providing new everyday services to strengthen consumer affection for our brands and increasing customer traffic in our stores. At the same time, we want to become a key player in the affordable fashion, home decoration, and cosmetic market with Monoprix brand and continue to develop our non-food e-commerce business by strengthening Cdiscount's marketplace model. To achieve this, we need to continue transforming Casino Group.
We have done the strategic plan based on listening and maintaining open dialogue with our customers, franchisees, suppliers, all partners, and obviously, with our employees. It's the first for Casino, this is a group-wide strategic planning, first time ever in a Casino Group that was ever done. We are not holding a financial holding. We are becoming a group of brands and a group of commerçants. The plan represents a common base that has been rolled out to each of the brands with specific adjustments as needed. It is based, as you can see on the chart, on five strategic drivers: the strength of our brands, our culture of service, our power as a group, the energy of our people, and our societal and environmental values.
One ambition: to have the best convenience brands, three key markets, and five strategic drivers that I'm going to present to you now in detail. The first driver is to set up a start to strengthen our brands. Our group brings together strong, unique, and complementary brands, which together meet everyone's needs across France. The group will support the brand's development and enhance their unique qualities by working on the customer experience and sharing innovations with the aim of establishing their long-term positioning. We are going to cultivate each brand's personality, and we are going to cultivate each brand's positioning, both online and in store. The unique and complementary nature of our brands is an important asset because it allows all of them to coexist on the same street without competing against each other, like you can find, let's say, in other retail brands in France.
Work on the group position also covers concepts and range, concept search, creating innovative and unique concepts such as the Oxygène concept recently launched by Franprix, which will be rolled out of 49% of our stores by 2028 and shows double-digit positive results currently. Range for all product categories, aligning the range with the catchment area and enhancing the offer by including local products. I'll give you just one example. At Place Blanche in Monoprix, you can purchase cakes coming from brands that are produced 100 m away from the stores, giving priority to products made in France that reflect the local economy, local products offers. One more example: 1,000 local products are available at Casino, Spar, and Vival, and more than 6,500 SMEs active on the Cdiscount marketplace. In-depth work on pricing, obviously. We have already reduced the price of more than 300 items.
Was price point set too high, and we are going to rework a range of affordable products so that all of our brand offers products at all price points, including value line, mid-range, and premium ranges, as well as an organic offer. We are going to carry out similar work on the sales price to our franchisees. We've already started to lower them. For example, at Franprix, Casino, Vival, and Spar, and we're going to continue to work with our franchisee. If our franchisees make money, so do we. Innovation, historically a strong point at Group Casino, and Monoprix has a long tradition of innovation. It was the first to launch Michel & Augustin brands, for example, and we want to become the preferred partner of suppliers by supporting the marketing of innovative products developed through local initiatives and by SMEs.
The second driver is our culture of service, which is what drives us. Service, the very essence of the retail profession, is at the heart of everything Casino does. Each of our brands will be reinventing its relationship with its customers, franchisees, suppliers, partners, and vendors. We want to create a truly local ecosystem so that every interaction is a springboard for shared growth. In practical terms, this means that we are going to improve the shopping experience for our customers, both online and in store, by turning each store into a welcoming hub for social cohesion, by improving customers' omnichannel journey, and also by guaranteeing the availability of products and offering a range of services tailored to each customer type as well as regions. First and foremost, we will demonstrate this culture of service to our franchisees who become our first customers. I'll give you some numbers.
92% of our Casino, Spar, Vival stores are operated by franchisees, 70% of our Franprix, and 48% at Monoprix, and 30% at Naturalia. We want to accelerate their successes. This means improving our franchisee selection, very important point, support as well, training and information processes with a new search and franchise approach that has been launched and currently rolled out in all brands of the group. It also means bringing together all the brands to come up with a more competitive value proposition by redefining our pricing policy, boosting our operational efficiency, and improving franchisee or franchisee collaboration, relationship, and communication. Lastly, it also means contributing to the development of our local suppliers, SMEs, and our marketplace vendors, helping them to build closer ties with franchisees, supporting the creation of responsibility, supply chain, developing new services based on the use of our data.
As you see on your screen, the first driver of power as a group is what makes us more powerful, key important parts of sustainability of our group. By pulling, optimizing, and strengthening all support services, the group will underpin the performance and growth of its brands. By sharing best practices and fostering in-depth collaboration between teams, the brand will become more competitive, agile, and profitable over the long term. Being a group and acting as one will enable us to develop synergy between brands to resume mastered expansion in France and abroad by opening new stores and attracting franchisees from competition. We will streamline the store network. We will close unprofitable store sites. We are going to convert certain integrating sites to franchisee and choose the brand best suited to the catchment area, obviously.
We are going to renovate our store in a controlled manner according to the development potential of each site. We're going to reduce by half our cost of remodeling per square meter, cut costs by optimizing logistics and operating costs of our head offices and stores, improve our performance by increasing bulk purchase volume from SMEs and mid-size suppliers, by centralizing goods known for resale purchases, energy, maintenance costs, waste collection, for example, and monetizing our data by joining a powerful shared France-wide central purchasing unit with Intermarché and Auchan to negotiate with leading suppliers, Aura Retail for food and non-food purchases, operational since October. The fourth driver that unites us is the energy of our people. Our group's renewal is based on the expertise of our teams. We will be developing our teams and structuring the career path of every individual to support the collective interest and growth.
Within each brand, but also across the board, we will encourage transmission, cooperation, and innovation to help the group and its talent pool to grow. What does it mean? Supporting the group transformation by strengthening its culture, redefining shared values, and anticipating major changes, helping employees to grow so that training and transmission become levers for individual and collective development. We are going to enhance career development and mobility between businesses, between brands, and towards franchisee, for example, through a cross-brand integration experience and the development of dedicated talent programs.
We want to extend the training policy as well to our franchisees and their employees through certification courses and the development of a specific learning store to strengthen and amplify a sales culture within our stores, promoting a culture of social innovation as a significant maker for the group by maintaining responsible social dialogue, developing an entrepreneurial culture, and rolling out ambition framework policy. Finally, the fifth driver, what motivates us, is represented by our social and societal and environmental values. We firmly believe that profitable and sustainable growth is possible and that our brands have a role to play in serving customers and society. At the heart of communities, towns, and consumer daily lives, the group faces many challenges, including the energy transition, regional cohesion, combating food waste, waste management, promoting inclusion and diversity, and offering responsible and local products.
By responding to these challenges, and in particular by creating social ties, I'm convinced that our values too help to strengthen the attractiveness of our brands. CSR is an integral part of our strategy, and we are going to structure it around three areas: inventing a new form of regional cohesion, as a retail network, as a convenience network. We have a social and societal role to play in developing new services for the most isolated in towns and villages, ensuring that producers are fairly paid, supporting entrepreneurial initiatives, and working to promote inclusion and diversity. Turning our products into the benchmark for good healthy eating, we will be ensuring that surplus specifications are rigorous, upholding animal welfare, and reducing food waste. Focusing on solutions that safeguard the environment by reducing waste, cutting carbon emissions, and setting up sourcing through the most environmentally friendly production chain.
In addition, we have defined a number of quantitative and qualitative KPIs besides the regular KPIs of a retail business, like shrinkage, like margin rate. We'll be enabled with these KPIs as well to monitor the success of the Renouveau 2028 strategic plan implementation through its duration and at the end of the plan. These KPIs are as follows. They are belonging to the key market segment, the day-to-day food shopping, quick meal solution, and new everyday services. For example, net sales growth by category, mix of local, fresh, private label, and prepared food products, number of services per store. We have a set, and we will focus on execution and pilot and monitor KPIs on a daily and weekly basis.
We'll have all these indicators relevant to all our brands that measure their sales performance, indicators specific to Monoprix, measuring progress as well in becoming a key player in fashion, cosmetics, and home decoration. I just presented to you B2C KPIs, and I would like to show, as well, we have key commercial transformation indicators for B2B. We'll have franchisee service satisfaction KPIs to make sure that we are serving well in a proper way. We're going to create a Net Promoter Score specifically to our franchisee to determine their satisfaction rate and to improve our sales. We'll watch out carefully. We'll track loyalty rates to make sure that they are purchasing as much as they can from our logistics network.
We will monitor, obviously, what is the proportion of stores in the store network that are operated under franchise, sorry, that is helping us to monitor the number of purchasing stores belonging to us. We'll as well monitor the number of franchisees that we take from the competition and we bring to our network. And last but not least, we will as well monitor the logistic cost ratio per store we sell. As well, CSR objectives are a key part of piloting the group in three pillars: climate, societal, and products. I'll give you a few examples. 42% reduction of carbon emissions, Scope 1 and 2 by 2030. We run a gender equality of managers by 2030, 50% men/women, and products, 20% responsible supply in 2030, starting from 10% as of today. Before giving the floor back to Angélique, I will come back to the summary later.
I'm giving the floor to Angélique right now that she will present all the figures.
Thank you, Philippe. Good morning, everyone. I'm glad to be with you today to present and following on what Philippe has presented as our strategic plan. First of all, some comments on the third quarter figures for our continuing businesses after we released our press release end of October. The activity of our convenience brands, which I remind are Monoprix, Naturalia, Franprix, and Casino Proximity, was down very slightly by -4.7%, broadly in line with what was their Q2 performance and also with the FMCG market, which contracted over the quarter according to Circana by between -0.5% or 1.5% in the third quarter. This change, however, reflects on our side. For Monoprix, as a rule, a growth of +0.9%, driven by a very strong momentum of Monop and Naturalia brands.
In addition, the Monoprix brand itself was back to growth, which was supported by its non-food segment this quarter, in particular by textile. On Franprix side, the decline of - 1.2% was mainly due to a disappointing performance in September, which was - 3.7% on that month, related to an unfavorable basis of comparison. First, we decided not to renew a promotional operation that diluted the margins in the past. Second, the weather conditions were much more favorable in 2023, hence supporting Franprix sales on that time. As regards Casino Proximity, the - 4.5% decline was observed in an environment still suffering from the disposal of hypermarkets and supermarkets. Let me remind you that those disposals led to an overhaul of the logistics organization that was common to hypermarket, supermarket, and proximity business for Casino.
Those disposals also required an in-depth review of the product range offering of our business at Casino Proximity. As for the discount, I will comment here on its like-for-like gross merchandise value, the discount having returned to growth after two years of transformation. The marketplace GMV was up by 8% this quarter. Back to sales. If the sales fell by -8.1%, sorry, they were still naturally impacted by this assertive strategy of streamlining the direct sales of the discount in favor of its marketplace business. However, the sales have made a sequential improvement since the start of the year. I remind you that the Q1 was -21% growth and the Q2 a 17% growth versus this 8.1% growth on Q3. Major events are also mentioned here for your information. Important to note that all were completed on time and on budget.
At the end of September 2024, the adjusted EBITDA after lease payments came to EUR 59 million over those nine months compared to EUR 197 million over nine months on the previous year. This slide provides you with the breakdown of such a change, which is partly explained by non-recurring items totaling EUR 37 million last year. Since the Q1 press releases, we commented on these non-recurring items of last year, which included the termination of the Getir-Gorillas contracts in Q3 2023 and the non-renewal in 2024 of any tax sponsorship credits which were recognized on previous periods. Adjusted for these non-recurring items, the adjusted EBITDA after lease payments fell by around EUR 100 million due to, first, dis-synergies related to the disposal of discontinued businesses for EUR 51 million. Second, the consequences of a high residual inflation on certain costs, mainly staff costs and rental costs.
Inflation also has impact on the collection rate of franchisee receivables. Third, the performance of the brands mainly hit by volume effects on the 2024 period. Lastly, the free cash flow for the nine months of 2024 was impacted by the payment this year of EUR 153 million of social and tax liabilities, which had been placed under a moratorium last year. Excluding this effect, the free cash flow before interest came to EUR -386 million, an improvement of EUR 460 million versus nine months last year. It's important to point out that these Q3 figures for our continuing businesses are impacted by the legacy of the past, even though actions have already been taken in recent months, as Philippe mentioned.
I remind you that the situation and our financial position require us to take up major challenges with regard to our price positioning, our aging and unbalanced store network, and our heavy cost structure and logistics. This legacy has led to major restructuring measures for which provisions of EUR 490 million have been recorded in the June consolidated financial statement this year, with the associated cash outflows to be spent over 2024 and also 2025. These weaknesses also have a negative impact on the level of our Adjusted EBITDA and our Free Cash Flow generation. Financing agreements were all restructured in March. They are not only costly but short maturity. I will come back on these points in a few moments. Nonetheless, we now look to the future with this plan, reason for which I'm now going to share with you the financial targets we've set for 2028.
It is an ambitious but realistic plan since it is built on highly detailed objectives and focused action plans all determined by and with the group's brands. Implementation of the plan should enable us to achieve a gross merchandise volume of around EUR 15 billion, meaning an average annual growth rate of + 3.7% over the 2024 to 2028 period. Our business model evolves towards a franchising model, which will automatically modify the flow recorded in our revenues of sales. The shift to franchise of an integrated store implies a reduction in the group sales figures. For this reason, the GMV KPI becomes more than relevant to measure the effect of our value creation plan. I would add that this KPI is not a new one. The group already communicated it in previous publication. GMV definitely measures the cash desk sales for all our stores, whether integrated or franchise.
Our objective of EUR 15 billion GMV for 2020, representing an increase of EUR 1.9 billion compared with 2023, is based on the four pillars that Philippe has already mentioned. First, accelerate success of our franchisees and partners. Second, streamline the store network through the implementation of rotations amongst the store networks and implement a mastered expansion program. Third, clarify the brand positioning and offering, and four, reshape the business model. Of course, we will continue to communicate on group sales, which are expected to grow at an average annual rate of + 0.8% over the 2024 to 2028 period, but we do not precisely reflect the performance of our brands, as I explained before. All in all, GMV and sales growth perspectives are deemed to be reasonable.
As a result of the synergies implemented across the group, savings of more than EUR 600 million are expected over the 2025 to 2028 period, of which EUR 350 million are already confirmed. These savings will come from cost rationalization required to adapt to our new perimeter, reduction in head office and store occupancy costs, pooling of skills and expertise, synergies of goods and non-food purchasing, and optimization of logistics. We therefore have three drivers that will ensure a gradual growth in Adjusted EBITDA after lease payments over the planned duration. GMV annual growth of +3.7%, EUR 600 million savings, and the streamlining of the store network based on the closure of unprofitable stores or contracts and the development of franchising, with the objective to reach 90% of the store network franchised by end of 2028.
Considering our low starting position in terms of performance, our plan is expected to take us to an adjusted EBITDA after lease payments of nearlyEUR 500 million in 2028. We consider this progressive growth is a reasonable target given the duration of the plan, which is required to unlock the potential of our brands and leverage on the transformation project. To implement it, the board of directors confirmed a gross CapEx budget of EUR 1.2 billion over the 2025 to 2028 period, in line with what had already been announced last April, meaning around EUR 300 million a year. Nearly 1/2 of this budget will be allocated to Monoprix, and these investments will mainly finance store renovation, but also store network expansion, transfer to franchisees, and IT development.
As a result, we seek to achieve a break-even position for the free cash flow before interest in 2026, with a conversion rate from EBITDA to the same free cash flow of about 50% in 2028. As mentioned above, these targets are based on gradual growth in adjusted EBITDA after lease payments to around EUR 500 million in 2028, taking into account this CapEx program of EUR 1.2 billion over the duration of the plan, as well as a positive cumulative contribution from working cap over 2026 to 2028. Finally, a word about our financial debt. It was put in place at the end of March this year as a result of our restructuring and safeguard plan. This slide shows the maturity schedule. Most of our debt matures in March 2027, assuming that our one-year extension option is exercised early 2026.
As a reminder, such option is subject to compliance with the December 2025 covenant test. This relatively short maturity will drive the group to working on a refinancing ahead of the maturity date and depending on market conditions. Our objective will be to get improvements in terms of flexibility and costs. I take the opportunity of this call to point out that by year-end this year, our liquidity exceeds EUR 1 billion and that there is no plan to draw down the Monoprix RCF at any time before year-end. I thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Angélique. In a summary, we have understood that the new Casino is a group of brands with a clear ambition to become the best of brand in convenience retailing.
Renouveau 2028 will enable us to grow the business with a GMV of [Foreign language] EUR 15 billion in 2028, representing an average annual growth rate of 3.7% over the period 2024 to 2028, and a gradual EBITDA growth over a period covered by the plan with adjusted EBITDA after lease payments expected to be close to EUR 500 million in 2028. Thank you to all of you, and Angélique and myself will be pleased to answer your questions.
We'll be starting the Q&A session in a few moments, so please ask your written questions one by one in English via webcast.
We've got a question from Clément Genoud from Bryan Garnier, and the question is, how many stores do you intend to close and how many are set to be converted to franchise?
Unfortunately, I will not give any details to this question as we don't want to give so many information to our competition, obviously, but it's part of our strategy, obviously, to reshape our network to convert stores in franchise and as well to try to attract stores from competition and opening new stores in white spot. We have as well a second question [Foreign language] Bryan Garnier. Will you grant further price cuts to our franchisees during your plan, and do you plan price investments at Monoprix as well? I mean, being since long in the retail business, I know that price elasticity is not so high, but we will focus, obviously, in improving our services, our assortment to serve customers, and we'll be like a sniper in terms of price investment and not as a mass bombing investment in pricing.
We have already reduced price on hundreds of products specifically in Franprix, and in Monoprix, we have set a range of 100- item affordable, and I would like to remember as well that as we are in convenience, our main competitor is a store next door and not hypermarket or supermarket far away from downtown in Monoprix, and you need a car and driving at least 15 km to reach them.
Third question from Mr. Genoud: where do you see the lease cost in 2028 after having closed and transferred many stores? First, let me remind you that as far as stores are concerned, we are already much in a tenancy position on our integrated stores. There were many sale and lease backs that occurred on the Monoprix portfolio in the past years, as you may remember.
In 2028, we will remain a tenant on some of our logistics platforms, some of the integrated stores, but just, as I said, most of them, and on our head offices on which we have some optimization in our plan. Another question is that what amount and timeline of cash restructuring costs to expect in front of the EUR 600 million cost savings? As mentioned during my presentation, most of our restructuring costs are to be expensed in 2024 and in 2025. There will be, on the first half of 2025, less than EUR 300 million to be cashed out in respect of the restructuring that were implemented this year. Another question: is this EUR 600 million cost savings target at risk without Cnova and the Casino Convenience banners outside of the group's perimeter? I will answer that there is no intention to have those businesses be outside of the perimeter.
Our plan is considering all our business units and brands, as Philippe described. Another question: is the EUR 350 million already confirmed referring to the HQ and logistics at restructuring already completed in late 2024? The answer is yes. These are essentially confirmed by the redundancy plan, which is part of our HQ and logistics restructuring this year. Another question: why mentioning excluding dividends when it comes to free cash flow? This was for the sake of clarity and to be specific in terms of the KPI and definition we were using. But aren't you prohibited from paying dividends until 2027? The answer is yes. Considering the existing indebtedness and contracts, the distribution of any dividend to shareholders is prohibited for the life of this financing package. How do you expect to manage the 2027 step four?
Are the banks open to the idea of rolling over the huge EUR 1.4 billion Term Loan B? As regards the second part of the question, I let you ask them, and please send me the feedback you will get. Back to the 2027 debt wall. As for most of corporates, the business plan does not include a detailed financing roadmap since our refinancing roadmap will be defined depending on market conditions. At the moment, we will launch it. The plan is financed down to March 2027 according to our maturity date of our Term Loan B. It will be either extended or refinanced. The other financing, namely operational maturities, are between March 2026 and March 2027. The one-year extension is built in, provided we meet the covenant at the end of the year, as I already mentioned, and which is not at stake in our current forecast.
Last question from Mr. Genoud: Are you open to the idea of selling non-core assets to finance CapEx and refinance part of the debt, i.e., the Cdiscount and Casino convenience banners? So I already answered that the Cdiscount and Casino convenience banners are not to be sold to finance our plan. And as regards non-core assets that we could dispose, we may have the remaining investment in GPA that we may consider at the moment of time.
There is one question from Hélène Rodriguez from Credit. Yeah. What are the margins in franchisee by brand? What are the margins in own store by brand? Our aim, as I already said, is to be the leader in convenience. The operation of small stores relies heavily on the involvement of a store manager.
As you know, a franchisee is the owner of his business, and by definition, is more involved than an employee who has to report to headquarters. Given the size of our store, average surface of 309 square meters, the structure need to run an integrated business quickly becomes cumbersome. By switching to a franchisee model, you can reduce management and operating costs and concentrate on your wholesale business and brand services. The result is slightly lower sales, obviously, but greater profitability, and this is what we're aiming for, and an overall improvement of EBITDA at store level, and we can consider that is around the range of 4-5 points on average.
Another question from Ms. Rodriguez: how much real estate do you have by value outside of Quatrim, and what is it specifically? What is it worth? It is worth EUR 140 million outside of Quatrim.
The total value including Quatrim is about EUR 600 million. What is it specifically in terms of real estate? These are remaining plots of land, essentially, that were close to our hypermarkets and supermarkets on which we identify some value creation, considering that these are strategic plots around retail schemes. A question from Ashley Blatter: please, can management explain the change in [audio distortion]
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].
Thank you for your attention.
[audio distortion] .
It seems that there is no more question. First of all.