Lars Olofsson has been appointed group chief executive of Carrefour succeeding José Luis Durán. He will start officially on 1 January 2009 and will spend the coming weeks meeting future colleagues within the Group.

Durán, who has been with Carrefour for 18 years and chairman of the management board and subsequently group chief executive since 2005, will continue to exercise his role as chief executive during and for the requirements of the transition period.

According to the British newspaper, the Financial Times, activist shareholders have forced the replacement of Duran as Carrefour shares have underperformed the CAC-40 index of top French companies by 37 per cent since January this year. Duran is one of the youngest CAC-40 chief executives and is credited with having stabilised the Paris-based retailer and laid the foundations for the future.

Olofsson was executive vice president of the Nestlé Group responsible for strategic business units, marketing and sales. Amaury de Sèze, Chairman of Carrefour’s Board of Directors, declared, "Lars Olofsson has exceptional experience in consumer markets, built over more than 30 years, both in France and internationally, within the number one global food industry group.
His strong leadership and sales and marketing expertise make him the ideal leader for Carrefour to carry out the next stage of the Group’s development." Olofsson’s appointment will be proposed at the next AGM.

Nestlé has asked Werner Bauer, executive vice president and chief technology officer, to take ad interim additional responsibility for Strategic Business Units, Marketing and Sales, effective today. Mr. Bauer already held this role on a previous occasion in 2004 and 2005.