London, Nov 18 - Lars Olofsson brings experience in French and European food markets and marketing to the job of chief executive at Carrefour and will have to draw on all three if he is to revive the French retailer's fortunes.
The 57-year-old Swedish national, who has spent the last 32 years at Swiss food giant Nestle, was named on Tuesday as the successor to Carrefour Chief Executive Jose Luis Duran who will step down at the end of the year.
Olofsson faces the task of reviving Carrefour's lagging hypermarket business in its home market as well as sharpening up the group's response to the worldwide threat of discount stores as shoppers curb spending in a global economic downturn.
Oddo Securities analyst Nicolas Champ said he ticked the right boxes.
"We believe that Lars Olofsson has the requisite qualities to assume the mantle of CEO at Carrefour, ie: excellent knowledge of the mass-market retail sector (and) recognised experience, both international and in the French market," he said.
Fluent in French, Olofsson was the head of Nestle's operations in France from 1997 to 2001.
He then led the world's biggest food group's European business from 2001 to 2005 and most recently worked as head of strategy at its marketing and sales operations.
Analysts said this would stand him in good stead at Carrefour which, with about 490,000 staff working in over 15,000 stores across 30 countries is the world's second-biggest retailer behind U.S. group Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
They said his experience in marketing could be particularly useful as Carrefour seeks to focus on its main group brand and tries to fight back against discount retailers.
Olofsson's appointment comes after British supermarket group Wm Morrison appointed a chief executive with a marketing background, Marc Bolland from Heineken, who has since been credited with driving market share gains.
"He has been 32 years at Nestle, so he is going to be pretty good for Carrefour," said Barclays Wealth analyst David Liston.
"He will have good knowledge of the Carrefour business."
But not everyone was convinced.
One analyst, who declined to be named, pointed out that Olofsson was passed over for the top job at Nestle last year and thought his last move into strategy and marketing was sideways.
"He is an experienced manager, but not one of the stars at Nestle," the analyst said.
Keen on golf, skiing and tennis, Olofsson gained a degree in business administration from the University of Lund, Sweden.
At 1015 GMT, Carrefour shares were up 1 percent at 30.1 euros, outperforming a 0.8 percent fall on the DJ Stoxx European retail index and valuing the business at about 21 billion euros ($26.5 billion).