Carrefour Romania announces the promotions of Silviu Diaconu and Radu Gherman

Carrefour Romania announces a new wave of promotions, continuing the policy of supporting its own representatives in key positions. Silviu Diaconu, former Purchasing Director for Fresh Products, has been appointed Director of Supeco, the discount brand of Carrefour Romania, thus taking over the position held until recently by Gabriel Cubanțov, who becomes Director IMT (International Merchandise Trading), within the Non-Food Procurement department, in France. At the same time, the role of Silviu as Purchasing Director for Fresh Products, was taken over by Radu Gherman, previously Purchasing Director for the Liquids and Tobacco category.

Thus, locally, Carrefour promotes its representatives in strategic business areas, both the discount area, where Supeco has a presence of 26 stores nationwide, with an extensive offer targeting families and small businesses, and the fresh food area, where the company’s strategy in recent years has focused on expanding partnerships with local producers to currently more than 1,000. The announcement comes shortly after other successive group appointments, namely the taking over of responsibilities in the e-commerce area by Gabriela Stănică, in the context of the appointment of Cătălin Samara as Director of a new structure, Bringo International.

“I would like to thank Gabriel, Silviu and Radu for their strategic projects carried out in Carrefour Romania and for their achievements. As a result of their involvement, we have developed flagship initiatives under the Act for Food umbrella, from founding the Vărăști cooperative, supporting the Grădinile Noastre din Zarand cooperative or developing the Creștem România BIO program, to including in our offer wines from small and medium wineries from Romania alongside premium wines from reputed producers, through the Deschidem Vinul Românesc program. I am glad that the three of them have accepted new challenges by our side and I am confident that they will continue to have significant achievements. Good luck to all three colleagues!”, said Julien Munch, CEO of Carrefour Romania.

Silviu Diaconu, the new Supeco Director, has been with Carrefour for 19 years, starting in 2003 as a Buyer in the Purchasing department and specializing in the fresh produce area. Having notable results, Silviu was successively promoted, in the role of Purchasing Manager for Fresh Products, and later, Purchasing Director for Fresh Products. From this position, Silviu played an important role in expanding the range of healthy fresh products, especially produced locally, in order to transpose the strategic direction of the Group in this regard. For example, Silviu coordinated the establishment of the Vărăști cooperative, Giurgiu County, in 2017, as well as the recent signing of the partnership with the Grădinile Noastre din Zarand cooperative, Arad County, both having a significant impact in terms of supplementing the offer of fruits, vegetables and fresh greens, produced locally, in the Carrefour network, as well as in terms of supporting member farmers for navigating legislation and sustainable production planning. He also supported and oversaw the implementation of Creștem România BIO, the first organic farming conversion program for local farmers, which began in 2019 addressing the need for Romanian conventional agriculture practitioners to have access to a simplified transition to BIO agriculture and a secure market. In the new role, Silviu Diaconu will coordinate a team of 600 people.

At the same time, with over 20 years of experience in retail, Radu Gherman, current Purchasing Director for Fresh Products, has carried out unique and impactful projects throughout his career, including coordinating a series of pilot projects within the Metro group on the category of soft drinks in the La Doi Pași franchise or new concepts of promo and pricing mechanisms. Radu started his career in Carrefour in 2016, as Purchasing Director for Liquids and Tobacco. Under his coordination, Carrefour developed in 2019 Deschidem Vinul Românesc, a strategic program to support Romanian wine producers and bring consumers closer to Romanian wine, unique in Europe. Since then, the program has expanded every year, reaching over 50 partner wineries in all product segments – regional wines, premium wines and those developed exclusively for the Carrefour network. In his new position, Radu takes over a team of 29 people, buyers and assistants, which he intends to consolidate in the long term, just as he participated in the creation and maintenance of a strong team within the previously coordinated department of Liquids and Tobacco. Another goal of his is to continue projects of strategic importance for Carrefour, including partnerships with local producers and support for agricultural cooperatives, under the umbrella of the Act for Food program, and the development of sustainability initiatives, for example by supporting the Creștem România BIO program.

After 17 years in Carrefour Romania, Gabriel Cubanțov, Director of the Supeco discount chain, accepted a new mission in the Carrefour Group, where he will hold the position of Director IMT, being responsible for identifying suppliers at group level who meet Carrefour standards in both food and non-food areas. Gabriel has been with Carrefour Romania since 2004, making his debut as Aisle Manager. As Director of Supeco, Gabriel coordinated at the operational level the inclusion in 2021 of the first Supeco stores in the Bringo platform, which extended to 10 in just one year, as well as the introduction of self-check-out desks in the Târgoviște store.

Carrefour Romania currently employs over 18,000 people in over 360 multi-format stores: hypermarket, supermarket, discounter, proximity, online, in warehouses and in its headquarters. As an important employer on the local retail market, Carrefour Romania creates opportunities for its employees to develop professionally. One such initiative is the School of Leaders, a project developed in partnership with the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) and launched in September 2021, which trains tomorrow’s leaders as company ambassadors, giving them, among other things, the opportunity to be mentored by recognized professors from ASE in key areas such as Leadership, Communication, Controlling, Finance, Operational Excellence, Project Management, Digital Strategy or Change Management.