Wed May 9, 2012 6:02am EDT
* Carrefour dismisses two senior executives -sources
* Execs are no longer on management list on company's website
* Carrefour declines to comment
By Dominique Vidalon
PARIS, May 9 (Reuters) - Carrefour CEO-designate Georges Plassat has quietly started a management reshuffle just one month after joining the troubled retail giant and recently dismissed two senior executives, sources close to the company said on Wednesday.
Chief Commercial Officer Jose Carlos Gonzales-Hurtado and Marketing Director Patrick Rouvillois are leaving Europe's largest retailer and are not expected to be replaced, the sources said.
"Plassat is starting to build up his own team and doing it fast," one of the sources told Reuters.
Retail veteran Plassat, who joined Carrefour on April 2 as chief operating officer and is due to take on the role of chief executive in June, has a record of company restructuring and a reputation as a ruthless cost-cutter.
Plassat's challenge is to reverse years of underperformance in Carrefour's European markets, notably in France, at a time of muted wage growth, government austerity measures and rising prices that are squeezing disposable incomes.
Analysts, however, expect Plassat to wait at least until June and more likely until Carrefour publishes first-half results in August before disclosing his strategy for the world's largest retailer after Wal-Mart.
MANAGEMENT CHANGES
Gonzalez-Hurtado, who had been recruited to his post in November 2009 by outgoing Carrefour CEO Lars Olofsson, was a member of Carrefour's executive committee.
Last year Carrefour faced embarrassing questions over the appointment of Gonzales-Hurtado, when Reuters reported that his previous employer disputed he held the top role he claimed in his profile.
Carrefour declined to confirm that the two executives were leaving or to comment on why their names were no longer on the management list on the group's website.
In other management changes, Carrefour earlier this month named Jerome Bedier, 56, general secretary to replace Pierre-Alexandre Teulie.
Bedier, who was previously vice-president of Capgemini Consulting France, has broad retail and trade lobbying experience. He is expected to help Plassat deal with French and European authorities as well as with unions.
Plassat will meet trade unions on May 10 amid mounting fears Europe's largest retailer may cut thousands of jobs in its home market, where it has been underperforming, union sources told Reuters last month.
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