Alongside selling everything from chocolate to pet food, Nestlé is now chief purveyor of management talent to the consumer goods world. After missing out on Nestlé’s top job, Paul Polman joined Unilever. Now Lars Olofsson – a former boss of Nestlé France – is taking on Carrefour. The muted shareholder reaction is not a comment on his calibre. He may lack retail experience, but a marketing background has worked for retail bosses such as Marc Bolland at the UK’s Wm Morrisonin the past. The Swede’s 32 years at Nestlé often saw him in negotiations with retailers.

But can an executive even of Mr Olofsson’s talents grapple with Carrefour’s strategic challenges? The biggest is fighting off the hard discounters and supermarkets that have been taking market share from Carrefour’s sprawling hypermarkets in France. After Carrefour focused too long on margins, José Luis Durán – whom Mr Olofsson is replacing – restored a sales focus from 2005. He was sidetracked last year by the arrival of the activist shareholders Colony Capital and Bernard Arnault, demanding Carrefour sell property. With the climate no longer conducive to balance sheet engineering, it is to be hoped that Colony and colleagues will back moves by Mr Olofsson to sharpen Carrefour’s price image and rebuild sales momentum – even if that means a short-term hit to margins.