French retailer Carrefour has shaken up its management in the hope of breathing new life into its flagging superstores.
The widely-trailed move sees its finance director, Jose Luis Duran, replace chief executive Daniel Bernard.
Luc Vandevelde, former boss of UK retailer Marks & Spencer, is being brought in as chairman as part of a wholesale restructuring of its board.
The decision was welcomed by investors, bringing Carrefour shares up 2% by the end of trading on Thursday.
Sales have been falling at Carrefour's French hypermarkets and it is planning price cuts to attract shoppers.
Fine tuning
A number of retailers in France are feeling the pinch as sputtering economic growth and concerns about labour market reforms have put consumers off spending.
" Bernard was blamed for the difficult situation in France and for poor communication "
"Bernard was blamed for the difficult situation in France and for poor communication," said Ingrid Azoulay, analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities.
Concerns about earnings have hit Carrefour shares, which lost 20% of their value last year and are now half their 1999 price.
To boost investor confidence the firm has promised to sell more than $1bn worth of assets by the end of this year. It has also pledged to deal with its debts, which stand at almost $12bn.
Carrefour, the world's second-largest retailer behind Wal-Mart, had sales of 81.4bn euros (£106bn; £56.2bn) in 2004.
It has more than 10,000 shops in 29 countries.
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