Auchan Retail Portugal assured on Thursday that “no restructuring plan involving layoffs is planned in Portugal,” following reports that the group would close 25 supermarkets in Spain and cut over 700 jobs.
“Auchan Retail Portugal is currently in a team integration phase following the acquisition of Minipreço stores, a process that has been progressing positively and in line with the company’s growth strategy in Portugal,” Auchan Portugal stated to Notícias ao Minuto, emphasizing that “at this time, no restructuring plan involving layoffs in Portugal is planned.”
The company further explained that “each country where Auchan is present operates autonomously, so the operation in Spain or any other country is independent of the realities of the Portuguese market.”
The Auchan group, operating in Spain under the name Alcampo, indicated in a statement that “the retail sector is undergoing a deep transformation.”
For this reason, Auchan has decided to reorganize its activities in Spain through a plan that responds to “new consumption trends,” which will “entail the closure of 25 struggling supermarkets” and “affect 710 employees out of a total of 23,300.”
According to the retailer, originally from northern France, the locations in question are part of a “batch of 224 supermarkets” acquired in 2023, which included supermarkets that “did not fit its model” or whose “location was not ideal.”
