| Type | Société Anonyme |
|---|---|
| Traded as | Euronext: CA |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1959 |
| Headquarters | Levallois-Perret, France |
| Key people | Lars Olofsson (Chairman and CEO) |
| Services | Discount, grocery and convenience stores, cash and carry, hypermarkets |
| Revenue | €101 billion(2010)[1] |
| Operating income | €1.836 billion (2010)[1] |
| Profit | €433 million (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | €53.65 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | €10.56 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Employees | 471,755 (end 2010)[1] |
| Subsidiaries | See below |
| Website | www.carrefour.com |
Carrefour S.A. (French pronunciation: [kaʁfuʁ]) is an international hypermarket chain headquartered in Levallois-Perret, France.[2] It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world (1395 hypermarkets at the end of 2009, the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and third largest in profit after Wal-Mart and Tesco). Carrefour operates mainly in Europe, Argentina, Brazil, China, Taiwan, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and in Saudi Arabia, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia, with most stores being of smaller size than hypermarket or even supermarket. Carrefour means "crossroads" in French.
The first Carrefour store opened on January 1, 1958, in suburban Annecy near a crossroads (carrefour in French). The group was created by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey and grew into a chain from this first sales outlet. In 1995 it merged with Promodès, known as Continent, one of its major competitors in the French market.
Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey had attended several seminars in the United States led by "The Pope of modern distribution" Bernardo Trujillo, who influenced other famous French executives like Gérard Mulliez (Auchan), Paul Dubrule (Accor), and Gérard Pélisson (Accor). Their slogan was "No parking, no business."
The Carrefour group was the first in Europe to open a hypermarket, a large supermarket and a department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket June 15, 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France.[3]
In April 1976, Carrefour launched a private label Produits libres (free products – libre meaning free in the sense of liberty as opposed to gratis) line of fifty foodstuffs, including oil, biscuits (crackers and cookies), milk, and pasta, sold in unbranded white packages at substantially lower prices.
In September 2009, Carrefour updated its logo.[4]
May 2011: Considering the stagnant growth and has faced increased competition in France from rivals including Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, Carrefour will expense 1.5 billion-euro ($2.1 billion) to change the supermarket with new concept as Carrefour Planet in Western Europe.[5]
February 2, 1998 to July 23, 2004, Carrefour was a partner in the program Le Bigdil presented by Lagaf', he has the same age as the store ans the group's slogan "Carrefour partrner of the Bigdil" at the end the issue "Was the Bigdil on TF1 with Carrefour".
The chain's Carrefour Hypermarket division has its head office in Courcouronnes, Essonne, France, near Évry.[6]
In November 26, 2011, Carrefour opened its first store in Albania as part of TEG Shopping Center (Tirana East Gate) with the same rights as in the European Union and throughout the rest of Europe. Carrefour is integrated in the new shopping center in the same format as in other countries extending into a space of about 7000 square meters. Carrefour will have a policy of supplying imported products while promoting Albanian products, particularly agro-industrial ones.
Carrefour in Brazil was founded in 1975 and today it is one of the major super markets of Brazil in competition with Extra, Wal-Mart, Pão de Açucar and others and now sell more than 25 million products per year.
Carrefour has also opened a franchise owned branch in the Bahrain City Centre in 2008.
In 2007, expansion accelerated outside France, particularly in Asia, with the building of 36 new hypermarkets, including 22 in China – where the Group broke its record for store openings in a one-year period.It was the leading foreign retailer, in terms of sales figures, until 2008 and has since lost its #1 position to RT-mart.
Carrefour has seven outlets under franchise in Egypt, which are often situated in shopping malls and frequented by the Egyptian upper class. The location in Alexandria was severely looted during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
Carrefour has 3 hypermarkets in Morocco. Carrefour maroc is a partner of Label'vie, a Moroccan supermarket chain. Carrefour is still expanding its presence in Morocco by opening supermarkets. (Carrefour Market)
The new store, Carrefour Wholesale Cash&Carry in Seelampur area of National Capital New Delhi is spread across 5,200 square meter and will house over 10,000 stock-keeping units to cater to professional businesses, institutions, restaurants and local retailers.
Carrefour opened up its 2nd Wholesale Cash&Carry in the Indian Metropolitan of Jaipur, which is also the capital of Rajasthan and a major tourist destination. The store in Jaipur is alost the same size as Delhi. Since the FDI policy in India does not allow foreign companies to open multi-brand retail stores in the country, global retailers have opted for the cash-and-carry route to establish their presence here.
In February 2009, Carrefour opened its first store in Iran in Western region of Tehran. Five other stores are to be opened sincerely in Shiraz (2011), Isfahan (2012), Eastern region of Tehran, Mashhad and Tabriz.
Carrefour is to open 5 stores in Iraq in the city of Erbil in 2011.
Carrefour also operates in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in a joint venture with Majid al Futtaim.[7]
In March 2007, Carrefour opened a store in Kuwait in the Avenues mall.
In 1989, Carrefour became the first international retailer to establish a presence in Asia when it entered Taiwan through a joint venture with Uni President Enterprises Corporation. It leveraged the experience it gathered in Taiwan to expand into other Asian markets.
Carrefour also has 11 franchise operated hypermarkets in Saudi Arabia, with 5 of them being in the capital Riyadh itself.
In Oman, Carrefour opened a store in 2003 on the outskirts of the city of Muscat. And in 2008, another branch opened in Qurum. In May 2011 Carrefour opened a store in the nizwa 7 hyper markets
Carrefour opened up its first store in Lahore, Pakistan in a joint venture with MAF in 2009 under the name of Hyperstar, and a second store in Karachi in 2011, with a third store under construction in the city.
Carrefour also operates in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in a joint venture with Majid al Futtaim.[7]
Carrefour had several hypermarkets in the UK until the 1980s. They were located in Leyland,[8] Caerphilly (South Wales), Merry Hill in Dudley, Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham), Glasshoughton (near Castleford), Eastleigh (near Southampton), MetroCentre in Gateshead, Telford Shopping Centre (Shropshire), Boroughbridge (North Yorkshire), Swindon and Cribbs Causeway in Bristol. All stores were later acquired by the Dee Corporation, but continued to trade as Carrefour for some time before being converted to Gateway Superstores. Some of the old Carrefour stores in the UK are now branches of Asda, for example the Merry Hill store which opened on 1 July 1986 but was converted into a Gateway in 1988 and since 1990 has traded as an Asda.[9]
As of July 14, 2011, a range of Carrefour's products are sold in the UK via Ocado.[10]
In 2006, Carrefour decided to sell all 16 stores in Korea to E-Land and exited their business in Korea. In 2010, Carrefour decided to leave Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. However, in November 2010, Carrefour decided to sell its Thailand operations, but the Malaysian and Singaporean operation, will retain.[11]
| Country | First store | Hypermarkets | Supermarkets | Hard Discounters | Cash & Carry | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | 2010 | 2 | - | - | 1 | 2 | - | China | 1995 | 184 | - | - | – |
| Indonesia | 1998 | 84 | 15 | - | – | ||||||||
| Bahrain | 2008 | 1 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Japan | 2000 | 7 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Jordan | 2007 | 1 | 3 | - | – | ||||||||
| Kuwait | 2007 | 2 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Malaysia | 1994 | 22 | 5 | - | – | ||||||||
| Oman | 2000 | 2 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Pakistan | 2009 | 2 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Iran | 2009 | 2 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Qatar | 2000 | 3 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Saudi Arabia | 2004 | 11 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Singapore | 1997 | 2 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Syria | 2009 | 1 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| Taiwan | 1989 | 64 | - | - | – | ||||||||
| United Arab Emirates[12] | 1995 | 11 | 2 | - | – |
| Country | First store | Hypermarkets | Supermarkets | Hard Discounters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt | 2002 | 4 | 5 | – |
| Morocco | 2009 | 3 | 2 | – |
| Tunisia | 2001 | 1 | 2 | – |
| Algeria | 2005 | Closed | - | – |
Carrefour has left Algeria in 2009, and opened in Morocco.
| Country | First store | Hypermarkets | Supermarkets | Hard Discounters | Convenience Stores | Cash & Carry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | 2011 | 1 | - | - | - | – |
| Azerbaijan | 2010 | 3 | 3 | - | - | – |
| Belgium | 2000 | 56 | 280 | - | 257 | – |
| Bulgaria | 2009 | 5 | 1 | - | - | – |
| Cyprus | 2006 | 7 | 8 | - | - | – |
| France | 1960 | 218 | 1,021 | 897 | 3,245 | 134 |
| Greece | 1991 | 28 | 210 | 397 | 216 | – |
| Ireland | 1972 | 35 | 210 | 398 | 73 | 4 |
| Italy | 1993 | 59 | 485 | - | 1,015 | 20 |
| Monaco | - | - | 1 | - | - | – |
| Poland | 1997 | 72 | 277 | - | 5 | – |
| Portugal | 1991 | - | - | 365 | - | – |
| Romania | 2001 | 24 | 39 | - | - | – |
| Spain | 1973 | 161 | 87 | 2,912 | 3 | – |
| Slovakia | 1998 | 15 | 12 | 6 | 1,95 | 2 |
| Slovenia | 1998 | 15 | 12 | 6 | 1,98 | 2 |
| Turkey | 1993 | 19 | 99 | 519 | - | – |
| United Kingdom | 1972 | 38 | 10 | 400 | 90 | 4 |
On October 15, 2009, Carrefour announced plans to sell its Russian business, citing "absence of sufficient organic growth and acquisition opportunities".[13]
| Country | First store | Hypermarkets | Supermarkets | Hard Discounters | Convenience Stores | Cash & Carry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 1982 | 59 | 103 | 395 | - | - |
| Brazil | 1975 | 150 | 38 | 300 | 5 | 34 |
| Colombia | 1998 | 70 | - | - | 12 | 3 |
| Dominican Republic | 2000 | 5 | 10 | - | 20 | 85 |
Carrefour, Atacadão, Hyperstar.
Carrefour Bairro, Carrefour Express, Carrefour Market (Formerly Champion as of 2008), Champion Mapinomovaoe, Globi, GB, GS, Carrefour Cafe, Carrefour mini, Gima.
Carrefour City, 5 minutes, 8 à Huit, Marche Plus, Proxi (supermarket), Sherpa, Dìperdì, Smile Market, Ok!, Express, Shopi (supermarket).
Carrefour Contact, Promocash, Docks Market, Gross IPer.
On May 1, 2007, more than 30 employees of the now closed Carrefour Ratu Plaza, Jakarta, Indonesia, were taken to the Central Pertamina Hospital (Rumah Sakit Pusat Pertamina), after being poisoned by CO2. The hypermarket was located on the mall's basement, which offered insufficient ventilation.[15]
On June 26, 2007 the company was convicted in a French court for false advertising. The suit alleged that Carrefour regularly stocked insufficient quantities of advertised products for sale. In addition, the company was convicted of selling products below cost and accepting kickbacks from wholesalers. Carrefour was ordered to pay a fine of €2 million and to prominently and legibly display a notice in all of its French stores disclosing the false advertising.[16]
In Carrefour Mangga Dua Square, Jakarta, Indonesia, a 5-metre high metal rack fell on top of a 3-year old boy, killing him almost instantly due to internal bleeding.[17] Afterwards, the victim's family claimed that Carrefour has refused to meet with them to settle the case.[18] However, Carrefour Corporate Affairs Officer denied this allegation[19]
Carrefour has also received criticism for engaging in sweatshop practices.[20]
On May 7, 2009, the French government asked a tribunal to fine Carrefour some €220,000 for more than 2,500 violations. Meat products lacked proper tracking information (more than 25% of inventory at some locations), and some products had incorrect labels – such as meat products that "shrank" in weight by 15% after receiving labels. The chain sold products that had long since passed their expiration dates, including, in one case, packs of baby formula that had expired six months earlier. Some 1,625 frozen and refrigerated products were found that had been stored in warehouses at ambient temperature.[21]
In April 2008, after the 2008 Olympic torch relay was disrupted by Tibetan independence advocates in London and especially Paris, where some protesters attempted to wrest control of the torch from torch bearers, Chinese activists have promoted boycotting Carrefour because of its French roots.[22] The boycott of Carrefour in particular was further fueled by unsubstantiated rumours that a major shareholder, Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, had donated to the Dalai Lama. In its response, Carrefour China stated that it does support the Beijing Olympics; and that they will never do anything to harm the feelings of Chinese people.[23] Protests occurred in and around a number of Carrefour outlets throughout China, and anti-Carrefour advocates campaigned for a one-day boycott of Carrefour on May Day, a public holiday in China.
As a result of the boycott, Chinese search engines Baidu.com.cn and sina.com blocked access to Carrefour's website in China for a short time. Users searching Carrefour in China, were sent an error page indicating "The search result may contain illegal content, so we can not display the result." in Chinese.[24]
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||