Thousands of job cuts on the way across struggling sectors in Europe

Thousands of job cuts are on the way in several struggling sectors across Europe, with French grocery chain Auchan being the latest to announce redundancy plans.

Staff representatives, summoned by Auchan management are feeling the pinch: 2,389 of the 54,000 jobs in France are at risk. A dozen outlets will close, including one supermarket and three hypermarkets, due to a lack of profitability.

The company’s customers are not surprised. “There are often empty shelves,” says one woman. Auchan, one of the pioneers of hypermarkets – large outlets on the outskirts of towns and cities, highly prized in the 1970s for the diversity of products on offer – is struggling to make a profit today.

To modernise, Auchan is planning to reduce its sales area by an average of 25% for hypermarkets, which will no longer exceed 10,000 square metres. The company intends to focus on smaller stores, drive-through and home delivery of fresh produce – a “reconquest operation”, in the words of Auchan’s management.

Meanwhile, German auto parts and machinery maker Schaeffler AG plans to cut 4700 jobs in Europe, demonstrating the struggle of Volkswagen and other big European car makers. Further down-the-line companies in the supply chain are now seeing the consequences as well.

The company described the job cuts as structural measures against “lower automotive production in Europe and ongoing weakness in various industrial sectors”.

The structural measures, to “secure the long-term increase in the company’s competitiveness”, include consolidating production and adjusting capacities, leading to the relocation and closing two of its factories outside of Germany. Those will be announced by the end of the year. 

The job cuts will mainly take place in Germany, where around 2800 jobs will be lost at 10 sites. However, five other sites in Europe are also affected.