French supermarket group Auchan to cut over 700 jobs in Spain

MADRID (Reuters) -French privately-owned supermarket group Auchan plans to cut 710 jobs and close 25 stores in Spain as it seeks to adapt to changing habits of shoppers who now shun large supermarkets for smaller stores and online shopping, it said on Thursday.

Auchan, which operates in Spain under the Alcampo brand, said it would rather focus on smaller stores and its e-commerce platform.

The retailer, which has 23,300 employees in the country and accounts for a 3% share of the retail market there, way behind Spanish rival Mercadona's 27%, disclosed the plan to unions during a meeting on Thursday.

"We will face this difficult situation, which is new involving the company, with a main objective of maintaining employment and, if employees leave, ensuring they leave under the best possible conditions," the CCOO union said in a separate statement.

The rise of e-commerce has hit the largest stores where people can buy, beside groceries, bigger-ticket items such as home appliances, bicycles or computers, as most of these products are now bought online.

Auchan, which operates a number of these giant supermarkets in France and elsewhere, is forced to reinvent itself. The company announced late last year it would cut more than 2,000 jobs in France.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)