Carrefour chief executive Lars Olofsson is plotting a major cost-cutting drive to save it €2bn (£1.7bn) by 2012, according to French press reports.

The grocery giant will update its 500 key executives this week on the plan to make it a more “agile” business, able to grow more rapidly and gain more market share.

Separately, this week Carrefour said it wanted to speed up growth in Russia as it opened its first hypermarket in the country in Moscow. Speculation was also growing as Retail Week went to press that Israel’s Koor Industries was planning to invest ILS3.5bn (£539m) in Carrefour.

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