Carrefour


For other uses, see Carrefour (disambiguation).
Carrefour SA
Type Public (Euronext: CA)
Founded 1957
Headquarters Levallois-Perret, France
Key people Lars Olofsson (Chairman of the management board and CEO), Amaury de Sèze (Chairman of the supervisory board)
Industry Retail
Products Discount, grocery and convenience stores, cash and carry, hypermarkets
Revenue €86.97 billion (2008)[1]
Operating income ▲ €2.776 billion (2008)[1]
Profit ▲ €1.256 billion (2008)[1]
Employees 490,000 (2008)[1]
Subsidiaries See below
Website www.carrefour.com

Carrefour SA (Euronext: CA) (French pronunciation: [karˈfur]) is a French international hypermarket chain, with a global network of outlets worldwide. It is the largest hypermarket chain in the world in terms of size, and 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, China, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and in the Dominican Republic, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia. Carrefour means "crossroads" in French.

Contents

History

The first Carrefour store opened on 3 June 1957, 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 1999 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 Édouard Leclerc (E.Leclerc), Gérard Mulliez (Auchan), Paul Dubrule (Accor), and Gérard Pélisson (Accor). Their slogan was "No parking, no business."

The Carrefour group pioneered the concept of a hypermarket[dubious – discuss], a large supermarket and a department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket 15 June 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France.[2]

Carrefour's trading logo

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, milk, and pasta, sold in unbranded white packages at substantially lower prices. The popularity of these products led critics on the political right to charge that Carrefour was undermining capitalism by acclimating the population to generic (rather than brand name or specialty) foods.[citation needed] In particular, Jean Mothes, an executive at Perrier, wrote in Investir magazine that Carrefour did more to accelerate the change to a socialist-led government than socialist politicians and syndicalists like Edmond Maire, Georges Marchais, François Mitterrand and Georges Séguy.[citation needed]

Slogans

  • Hypermarkets: "Choice and quality for everyone"
  • Hypermarkets: "Pentru o viaţă mai bună" (Romania); it means "For a better life"
  • Hypermarkets: "Ke Carrefour Aja Ahh...!!!" (Indonesia), literally means "Go to Carrefour (is better)...!!!"
  • Supermarkets: "The prices people want, close to home"
  • Hard Discount: "Grocery products at low, low prices"
  • Convenience Stores: "Just what you need, right next door"
  • Cash & Carry: "Proximity and accessibility for catering professionals"

Carrefour around the world in September 2007

Countries where Carrefour Group is present.
     Directly owned
     Under franchise

Asia

  • 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 operates in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in a joint venture with Majid al Futtaim[1] . In March 2007 Carrefour opened a store in Kuwait in the Avenues mall . In Oman, Carrefour opened a store in 2003 on the outskirts of the city of Muscat. Carrefour also has 11 franchise operated hypermarkets in Saudi Arabia, with 5 of them being in the capital Riyadh itself. 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. Carrefour has also opened a franchise owned branch in the Bahrain City Centre in 2008.
Country First store Hypermarkets Supermarkets Hard Discounters
China 1995 134 - -
Indonesia 1998 61 14 -
Bahrain 2008 1 - -
Japan 2000 7 - -
Jordan 2007 1 - -
Kuwait 2007 1 - -
Malaysia 1994 12 - -
Oman 2000 2 - -
Pakistan 2009 1 - -
Iran 2008 Under Construction - -
Qatar 2000 3 - -
Saudi Arabia 2004 11 - -
Singapore 1997 2 - -
Syria 2009 1 - -
Taiwan 1989 48 - -
Thailand 1996 25 - -
United Arab Emirates[2] 1995 11 2 -

Africa

Country First store Hypermarkets Supermarkets Hard Discounters
Morocco 2009 1 -
Algeria 2005 2 1
Egypt 2002 5 -
Seychelles 2009 Under Construction - -
Tunisia 2001 1 2 -

Europe

Country First store Hypermarkets Supermarkets Hard Discounters Convenience Stores Cash & Carry
Belgium 2000 56 280 - 257 -
Bulgaria 2009 1 - - -
Cyprus 2006 5 4 - - -
France 1960 218 1,021 897 3,245 134
Greece 1991 28 210 397 216 -
Italy 1993 59 485 - 1,015 20
Monaco - - 1 - - -
Poland 1997 72 277 - 5 -
Portugal 1991 - - 365 - -
Romania 2001 22 21 - - -
Russia 2009 5 - - -
Spain 1973 161 87 2,912 3 -
Slovakia 1998 4 - - - -
Turkey 1993 19 99 519 - -

Americas

  • Carrefour has a presence in 4 countries in the Americas: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic. Carrefour is active in 3 types of retail distribution: hypermarkets, supermarkets and hard discounters, and entered the Cash & Carry market in Brazil, after the purchase of Atacadão.[3]
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 57 - - - -
Dominican Republic 2000 5 10 - 20 85

Store brands

Hypermarkets

Carrefour, Atacadão, Hyperstar.

Supermarkets

Carrefour Bairro, Carrefour Express, Carrefour Market (Formerly Champion as of 2008), Champion Mapinomovaoe, Globi, GB Supermarkets, GS, Carrefour mini, Gima.

Hard discount stores

Dia, Ed, Minipreço.

Convenience stores

5 minutes, 8 a HuiT, Marche Plus, Proxi (supermarket), Sherpa, Dìperdì, Smile Market, Ok!, Contact GB, GB Express, Shopi (supermarket).

Cash & Carry

Promocash, Docks Market, Gross IPer.

Criticism and controversies

The Carrefour supermarket at Faa'a, Tahiti, French Polynesia

On 26 June 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.[4]

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.[5] Afterwards, the victim's family claimed that Carrefour has refused to meet with them to settle the case.[6] However, Carrefour Corporate Affairs Officer denied this allegation[7]

Carrefour has also received criticism for engaging in sweatshop practices.[8]

On 7 May 2009, the French government asked a tribunal to fine Carrefour some €220,000 for more than 2500 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 1625 frozen and refrigerated products were found that had been stored in warehouses at ambient temperature.[9]

Boycott of supplies in China

A Carrefour outlet in Beijing, China promotes the use of canvas bags as opposed to plastic bags prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

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.[10] 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.[11] 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 家乐福, Carrefour in Chinese, were given an error page indicating "The search result may contain illegal content, so we can not display the result." in Chinese.[12]

Former countries

Carrefour Visora Minoh store at Osaka Prefecture Minoh City, Japan
Carrefour Bangkok, Thailand
Carrefour Munro, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Chile ― In 2004, Carrefour sold its 8 hypermarkets in Chile to D&S;
  • 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 as well as its stores in Taiwan. Carrefour had opened its first store in 1998 in the Czech Republic and in 2000 in Slovakia. The stores use the Tesco name and brand now;
  • Hong Kong — In the late 1990s, Carrefour moved out of Hong Kong after complaints from manufacturers about selling products (especially electronics) at prices far below those of its competitors.[citation needed] Carrefour previously had stores in Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long and Heng Fa Chuen.
  • Japan — In 2005, Carrefour sold its 8 hypermarkets to AEON Group, but stores still use the Carrefour name and brand;
  • Mexico — In March 2005, Carrefour sold its 29 hypermarkets in Mexico to Chedraui. Carrefour had opened its first store in 1995 in Mexico;
  • Portugal — Carrefour entered Portugal by buying its first stores in 1991 - two Euromaché hypermarkets, in Telheiras (a Lisbon neighbourhood) and Vila Nova de Gaia (suburbs of Porto); This chain was known to have very good quality products, mainly from French origin, when in July 2007 Carrefour sold all of its 12 hypermarkets and 9 fuel stations to Sonae for €662 million. Also included were 11 licenses for opening new commercial spaces. Nowadays only the 365 hard-discount supermarkets (Minipreço) are supported by Carrefour in this country, not included in the takeover.
Carrefour in Batu Pahat, Malaysia

See also

Companies portal
Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carrefour

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Annual Results 2008" (PDF). Carrefour Group. http://www.carrefour.com/docroot/groupe/C4com/Pieces_jointes/CA/COMMUNIQUE_EN.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-03-29. 
  2. ^ (French) Hugues Joublin, L'aventure du premier hyper, L'Expansion, 06/05/1993
  3. ^ Carrefour purchases Atacadão and becomes leader of the segment in Brazil - UOL (Portuguese)
  4. ^ (French) Carrefour condamné pour publicité mensongère
  5. ^ A 3-year old boy died when a metal rack fell onto him
  6. ^ Victims Family is Refused to Meet Carrefour Officials
  7. ^ Carrefour Officials deny refusing victim's family
  8. ^ Bangladesh - Carrefour has to do better
  9. ^ (French) Carrefour risque de payer 220.000€ d'amende
  10. ^ Carrefour faces China boycott bid
  11. ^ 家乐福中国对近日出现的一些不实传闻的声明
  12. ^ Chinanews.com article dated April 30th, 2008
  13. ^ Carrefour sell its hypermarkets to Swiss retailer Coop for $390 million.

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