Carrefour is closing in on a year since the launch of its much-heralded 'Carrefour 2022' transformation plan. Yet recovery in its home market isn't something that is guaranteed to happen overnight. This article first appeared in ESM Issue 6 2018.

Rome wasn't built in a day, as the old saying goes, and for a retailer as big as Carrefour, that's certainly the case. When former Fnac Darty chief executive Alexandre Bompard was parachuted in to turn around the business after several years of relative stagnation, analysts and shareholders alike may have anticipated a quick fix, particularly in the retailer's hypermarket-heavy domestic market.

But that turnaround has been a while in coming, and while Carrefour recently posted positive third quarter results, there's no shortage of interested parties seeking a greater acceleration in its performance in the coming year.