Europe's leader, the world's second largest retail chain: Carrefour Group
Carrefour was the first establishment to bring the concept of "hypermarket" to Europe.
Today, the world's leading retail chain Carrefour Group, which has more than 12 thousand markets and 350 thousand employees in 30 countries, opened its first market in France on June 15, 1963, forming the basis of modern retailing.
It is the merchandising company with the world's largest turnover after Walmart. It operates mainly in the European Union, Brazil and Argentina, but also has stores in North Africa and Asia. The French word meaning of the company name is "road" or "crossroads".
The first Carrefour store opened in Annecy on June 3, 1957. In 1999 it merged with Promodès, one of its main competitors in France, known as Continent. Co-founders Marcel Fournier and Denis Defforey attended seminars in the US by Bernardo Trujillo, known as the "Pope of modern distribution," and were greatly impressed by his views.
The Carrefour group opened its first hypermarket on 15 June 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris. In 1976, the company launched a specialty product line of 50 foods, including milk, biscuits and pasta. These products were offered for sale in unbranded white packaging at low prices and attracted great interest. Carefour is one of the largest supermarket chains in France, together with Auchan.
February 2018
Carrefour, the well-known market chain of France, took over from Dia in 2014, but did not get the expected efficiency, and decided to "close" its 273 stores throughout France in case of no buyers, and to transfer 79 stores by leasing or franchise method.
In the statement made by the company, it was said, "We are looking for buyers to ensure that these stores are not closed."
With the decision, it was stated that approximately 4,500 people, including the employees employed in the Dia stores of the group, will be laid off within a year.
Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard stated that they hoped to strengthen thanks to Dia, but they could not find the right model in some stores and lost 150 million euros in operating revenues.
It was noted that the failure to reach the profit rate of approximately 1 billion euros in 2016 and the ever-increasing labor costs were effective in Bompard's decision.
August 2022
Carrefour freezes prices on 100 products to fight inflation in France
Carrefour announced that it has decided to “freeze prices” on 100 products to help the French people fight inflation, which has risen from the Russia-Ukraine war.
Carrefour's decision comes after French President Emmanuel Macron pressured business to do more to curb rising prices.