Finance Transformation: How Rexel France Accelerated Performance with a Business-Partnering Approach

Discover the Perspective of Edouard Pichon, CFO at Rexel France

"The proximity between finance and operations is one of the keys to success."

With revenue of €3.7 billion in 2024, Rexel is the French leader in professional distribution of products and services for the energy sector. The company distributes and designs electrification solutions across three markets, residential, commercial and industrial, covering four main areas of expertise: energy distribution, HVAC, industrial automation, data communication and security.

Operating in a sector with thin margins, the finance function works closely with business units to ensure profitable growth, as Édouard Pichon explains. In this interview, he reflects on the transformation challenges facing his function in a constrained economic environment, while addressing the environmental objectives the company has set for itself.

How would you define the role of the finance function at Rexel France?

As a guardian of performance, because it plays an essential role in detecting weak signals that are sometimes imperceptible to leadership.

In that sense, it plays a critical role in steering the company. It develops committed analyses and forecasts through in-depth work that enables Rexel and its operational divisions to make informed decisions, supported by efficient decision-making tools that help navigate a constantly shifting environment.

In short, far from limiting ourselves to producing numbers, we make those numbers speak, with the constant objective of maintaining our operational excellence.

Concretely, how has your organization evolved toward business partnering?

With revenue of €3.7 billion, Rexel France employs 200 people within its finance function, structured around key pillars including management control, accounts receivable and payable, and the oversight, including integration, of our subsidiaries.

Our distinctiveness lies in a business-oriented approach to management control that places a controller directly alongside each operational department. Each of the seven regional sales director, each overseeing several hundred million euros in revenue, benefits from the support of a dedicated financial expert.

This collaboration naturally extends to cross-functional departments such as marketing, logistics and digital, where each director is supported in their work by a financial specialist. With deep operational knowledge, that specialist assesses the performance of the actions and processes deployed.

One example: the controller responsible for call centers analyzes both financial results and operational indicators, such as the call abandonment rate, to optimize scheduling, working in close coordination with the teams.

I actively encourage this proximity between finance and operations, as I believe it is a key success factor for the finance function and, more broadly, for overall company performance.

"Every new branch or logistics center opening is evaluated through a combined lens of environmental impact and economic viability."
— Édouard Pichon, CFO at Rexel France

How are ESG criteria reshaping your mission?

As a distributor of electrical equipment and energy solutions, decarbonization is at the heart of our purpose. We are committed to promoting sustainable practices and reducing the carbon footprint of both our own operations and those of our customers.

We have a very proactive low-carbon strategy, with a clear drive to drastically cut our greenhouse gas emissions. Every new branch or logistics center opening is evaluated through a combined lens of environmental impact and economic viability. In a supportive regulatory context, the finance function — in partnership with the CSR department — plays a driving role in going beyond minimum requirements and accelerating decarbonization.

As part of our CSRD implementation, for example, we measured our entire energy consumption to categorize its sources, with the goal of integrating green energy into each of our activities. Our ambition is to consume only green or renewable energy within the next three years.

Rexel has also been included in Euronext's CAC 40 ESG index, which groups French companies demonstrating the best environmental, social and governance practices.

How do you manage to combine legacy systems with technological innovation?

Rexel France's transactional system is a legacy platform, but one that has been optimized over the years through internal development, delivering remarkable day-to-day performance for the company and its teams — and representing a clear competitive advantage.

That said, we have embarked on a modularization of our application foundation and systematically consider acquiring external solutions whenever they outperform what we could build internally.

When it comes to our transactional core, however, we have a strong internal development culture, specifically tailored to our market — because off-the-shelf solutions from software vendors do not meet our requirements in this area.

"While finance professionals have traditionally excelled at processing data, their value now lies in their ability to interpret it, identify underlying trends and enrich it to offer new perspectives."
— Édouard Pichon, CFO at Rexel France

Have you invested in performance management tools?

We adopted Qlik — a performance management tool initially selected by the IT department, quickly embraced by the finance function and then by all departments, thanks to a strong data culture.

It is used across strategy, procurement, marketing and accounting alike. Depending on your role and seniority, you have access to varying levels of data granularity. This filtering helps prevent information overload in a data-rich environment, giving every employee the autonomy to receive the information that is relevant to their role and specific needs.

Are these innovations changing the skills expected of finance team members?

I would speak of a genuine behavioral shift rather than a skills shift.

While finance professionals have traditionally excelled at processing data, their value now lies in their ability to interpret it, identify underlying trends and enrich it to offer new perspectives.

A strong finance professional stands out through their ability to bring insights to business units and the broader organization — turning observations into actionable levers.

What are your priorities for the next five years?

My first priority is controlling operational costs, which has become essential in an uncertain economic environment.

Next comes the engagement and development of finance teams. The ability to analyze data with greater precision is also critical, as it will allow us to better detect weak signals.

Finally, technological transformation and its adoption by our teams remains an important topic. Seeing members of my team use RexelGPT — our internal tool — to build Excel formulas and save hours of work confirms that the momentum is moving in the right direction.

My primary concern is preserving the added value of finance team members. We have no time to waste on reporting — we are needed elsewhere, alongside the business, doing business analysis. I say "alongside" deliberately, because the proximity between finance and operations is one of the keys to success.

Another priority will be improving our predictive capabilities, particularly through AI: at this stage, we still produce many indicators manually, and we have significant room for improvement in this area.