At the end of 2022, Israelis are expected to enter the branches of French Carrefour for the first time – the leading chain in Europe. Electra Consumer Products, which controls Bitan Wines, which previously acquired the Mega chain, signed a franchise agreement with Carrefour and stated that it would convert 90% of Mega-Bitan stores into branches of the French chain within three years.
This is the first time that an international food chain will enter Israel, and for Shufersal – the largest marketing chain in Israel, with a market share of about 20% – this may be a real threat. It is not yet clear whether Carrefour will be able to compete with Shufersal in the price segment, but it may be possible to give a fight in the shopping experience segment, which in most supermarkets in Israel is not successful. Consumers, for their part, will be happy to experience a new kind of shopping experience, and may vote with their feet.
The question is whether Shufersal will arrive ready for the competition against Carrefour. In the last six months, it has experienced many upheavals at the top of the company, as well as its declining economic performance. The source of the shocks in the company lies in the appointment of Yaki and Damani as chairman of Shufersal in October 2020. The appointment took place against the background of the sale of the share of the former controlling shareholder in the chain, Discount Investments, then controlled by Eduardo Elstein, to the institutional bodies. And Shufersal’s veteran at the time, Itzik Aberhahn, which ended with Aberhahn’s resignation earlier this year. But within a few months Abercrombie managed to pave his way back to the net, and this time as its chairman. And Damni, by this point, was already out of the picture.
The third “hero” in this saga – perhaps more accurate to describe as an anti-hero, is Ofer Bloch, a former member of the Israel Electric Corporation, Hadera Paper, Netafim, Yes and others. He took over as CEO of Shufersal last May, but as Wadmani’s appointment and when Aberkhan’s return is on the horizon, his time at the company seems to have been limited. Bloch did not remain obligated, and in his own letter he called on the members of the board of directors “puppets,” and even added: “The letter of summons to the hearing was written in a cynical and malicious manner. It’s all baseless slander. “
Aberkhan, who was appointed chairman of Shufersal in June, has recently appointed a new CEO from the group: Uri Waterman, who is considered his protégé and has served for the past five years as CEO of Be, Shufersal’s pharma chain. A market of about 20% in the field of food retail, is preparing for the big competition that is expected to come at the end of the year, with the arrival of Carrefour in Israel.
Back to Bloch. He ended his term with a bowed head but with padded pockets. He received from Shufersal a “gold conductor” of nine months of work, and a total of about NIS 2 million for two months of work.
For now, the saga in Shufersal is over, but it leaves many questions: What exactly happened behind the scenes of the overthrow of Bloch? How do cases in which CEOs end short term in public companies with particularly generous “golden parachutes” affect us, the public? .