Lawyer, recruiter, and business analyst, these are some of the jobs Picnic is looking for people. Requirement is that they speak French.
Does Picnic go to France? CEO Michel Mueller doesn’t want to say that. “If you start somewhere, it won’t be arranged tomorrow,” he says. “You have to learn more about the country.”
Larger markets
Four months ago, CEO Michelle Mueller said he also wanted to become active in other countries with Picnic. Now the company only offers groceries ordered online in the Netherlands and in a number of German cities.
France, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Poland were among the countries Mueller had thought of at the end of September. He also said he prefers to focus on the bigger markets. At the time, he did not consider expanding to Belgium, where French is partly spoken.
In Europe, outside Belgium, French is only spoken in the smaller countries of Luxembourg and Switzerland, and, of course, in France itself.
Decision in the coming months
“We will make the decision in the coming months,” he says. He admits that if you want to expand to Spain or Poland for example, it makes more sense to look for people who speak Spanish or Polish.
So, is Belgium completely out of the question? Mueller does not show the back of his tongue. Half a year ago he already said in principle that he would rather look at the bigger countries, “but the world is changing fast.”
However, about 60 percent of Belgians speak Dutch. Albert Heine and Jumbo began in Dutch-speaking Flanders.
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