Carrefour

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This article is about Carrefour, the company. For the city, see Carrefour, Haiti.

Image:CarrefourLogo.png

Image:Carrefour at Faa'a French Polynesia.JPG Carrefour SA (Template:Euronext) is an international supermarket group, headquartered in France, with a global network of supermarkets. It is the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and sales figures after Wal-Mart. [1]

The first Carrefour store opened on June 3, 1957, in the suburbs of Annecy near a crossroads (carrefour in French). As of today, this is the smallest Carrefour store in the world.

The group was created by Marcel Fournier and Louis Defforey and grew into a network from this first sale's point. In 1999 it merged with Promodès, one of his major competitors on the French market.

Marcel Fournier and Louis Defforey had assisted several seminars in the United States animated by "The Pope of modern distribution" Bernardo Trujillo (who had a major influence on other famous French executive like Edouard Leclerc (E.Leclerc), Gérard Mulliez (Auchan), Paul Dubrulle (Accor), and Gérard Pélisson (Accor)). Their slogan was "No parking, no business.".

The Carrefour group pioneered the concept of a hypermarket: a large supermarket combined with a department store ("all under the same roof"). They opened the first hypermarket in 1962 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France.

In April 1976 Carrefour removed branding from around fifty basic food products (oil, biscuits, milk, pastes...) and sold them at substantially lower prices. These Produits libres, Free Products, caused a sensation. At the time this marketing strategy was considered by some in France to be "anti-capitalist". Jean Mothes, one of the executives of Perrier, wrote in "Investir" that Carrefour did much more to accelerate the swap to a socialist-led government than Edmond Maire, Georges Marchais, François Mitterrand and Georges Séguy joined together. According to some this a Francophone line of thought that the natural instinct of capitalists is never to risk a profit margin by undermining the power of brands, according to other it was perceived easier at that time in France to beat the competition with political discurses than with a competitive advantage, according to a third group of people this was the result of a paranoïd vision of the political situation in many French executives minds. However according to others, this is only the delirium of the over-inflated ego of a borderline executive.

It operates mainly in the European Union, Brazil and Argentina, but also has shops in North Africa and Asia.

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Carrefour around the world in June 2005

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Americas

Country First store Number of stores Hypermarkets Supermarkets Hard Discounters
Argentina 1982 461 28 114 319
Brazil 1975 336 100 35 201
Colombia 1998 21 21 -
Dominican Republic 1999 1 1 - -
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Asia

  • Carrefour was the first international retailer to establish a presence in Asia in 1989, with a presence in 7 countries. Carrefour also operates in the United Arab Emirates in a joint venture with Majid al Futtaim [2].
Country First store Number of stores Hypermarkets Supermarkets Hard Discounters
People's Republic of China 1995 270 64 8 212
Taiwan (Republic of China) 1989 36 36 - -
South Korea 1996 31 31 - -
Indonesia 1998 18 18 - -
Malaysia 1994 8 8 - -
Singapore 1997 2 2 - -
Thailand 1996 22 22 - -
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Europe

  • Carrefour is leader in Europe
Country First store Number of stores Hypermarkets Supermarkets Hard Discounters Convenience Stores Cash & Carry
Belgium 2000 505 56 261 - 188 -
France 1960 3704 216 1024 650 1650 156
Greece 1991 631 16 135 337 143 -
Italy 1993 1277 41 405 - 813 18
Poland 1997 100 31 69 - - -
Portugal 1992 387 7 - 380 - -
Romania 2000 5 5 - - - -
Spain 1973 3010 137 176 2668 - 29
Switzerland 2001 11 11 - - - -
Turkey 1993 307 12 7 288 - -
Europe 1960 9947 542 2077 4323 2794 203
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Former countries

Image:Carrefour.JPG

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Chile

In 2004, Carrefour sold its 8 hypermarkets in Chile to D&S.

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Czech Republic and Slovakia

In September 2005, Carrefour sold to Tesco (the biggest UK retailer) 11 stores in the Czech Republic and four in Slovakia. Tesco paid 57.4 million euros as well as its stores in Taiwan. Carrefour had opened its first store in 1998 in Czech Republic and in 2000 in Slovakia.

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Hong Kong

In the late 1990's, Carrefour moved out of Hong Kong after complaints from manufacturers about selling products (especially electronics) at prices far below those its competitors had. Carrefour previously had stores in Tsuen Wan and Heng Fa Chuen.

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Japan

In 2005, Carrefour sold its 8 hypermarkets.

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Mexico

In March 2005, Carrefour sold its 29 hypermarkets in Mexico to Chedraui. Carrefour had opened its first store in 1995 in Mexico.

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United Kingdom

Carrefour had five hypermarkets in the UK until the 1980s. These were located at Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, West Midlands, Cribbs Causeway near Bristol, Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire, Swindon and at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, Dudley, West Midlands. These stores were sold to Gateway (later Somerfield) and have changed hands again, now being Asda Wal-Mart supercentre hypermarkets, excluding the store at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre which is just an ASDA supermarket.

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United States

Carrefour had hypermarkets in Philadelphia and Berlin Township, New Jersey, for about five years. Both stores closed in 1993. The stores charged $0.25USD for the use of a shopping cart. Some associates wore roller skates to facilitate moving about the large building. The Berlin location now houses a Kohl's department store, a Raymour and Flanigan furniture store, and a Marshalls discount clothing store.

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See also

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External links

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