CARREFOUR’S INTERNATIONAL

OPERATIONS

Submitted by:
Ankit Gupta
Debasish Sarma
Ishneet Dhillon
Robin Asati
Shrabani Mohanty
Megha Grover
 A brief timeline
• Group created by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and
Jacques Defforey
• First Carrefour Store Opened On 3 June 1957, First
Hypermarket on 15 June 1963
• In April 1976, Carrefour launched private label products
• Operations in three major markets: Europe, Africa, Latin
America and Asia covering 36 countries
• Largest Hypermarket chain in the world in terms of size,
the second largest retail group in the world in terms of
revenue and third largest in Profit after Wal-Mart and Tesco
• Following the footsteps of Wal-Mart , Carrefour plans to
open its first store in India this year.
Extent of its internationalization
Break –down in terms of the formats
 Country-wise operations-EUROPE
Hard Convenience
Country First store Number Super Marche Cash & Carry
Hypermarkets Discounters Stores

Belgium 2000 593 56 280 -- 257 --

France 1960 5515 218 1021 897 3245 134

Greece 1991 851 28 210 397 216 --

Italy 1993 1579 59 485 -- 1015 20

Poland 1997 353 72 277 -- 4 --

Portugal 1992 471 -- -- 471 -- --

Romania 2000 11 11 -- -- -- --

Spain 1973 3163 161 87 2912 3 --

Turkey 1993 637 19 99 519 -- --

Europe 1960 13,173 624 2459 5196 4740 154

 Country-wise operations-LATIN AMERICA

Convenience
Country First store Hypermarkets Supermarkets Hard Discounters Cash & Carry
Stores

Argentina 1982 59 103 395 - -

Brazil 1975 150 38 300 5 34

Colombia 1998 57 - - - -

Dominican Republ 2000 5 10 - 20 85

ic
 Country-wise operations-ASIA
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 2009 1 - -

Qatar 2000 3 - -

Saudi Arabia 2004 11 - -

Singapore 1997 2 - -

Syria 2009 1 - -

Taiwan 1989 48 - -

Thailand 1996 25 - -

United Arab Emirates[3] 1995 11 2 -

Country-wise operations-AFRICA
Country First store Hypermarkets Supermarkets Hard Discounters

Morocco 2009 1 -

Algeria 2005 2 1

Egypt 2002 5 -

Under
Seychelles 2009 - -
Construction

Tunisia 2001 1 2 -
OF OPENING HYPERMARKETS SUPERMARKETS CONVENIENCE CASH AND CA
STORES

13173 2459 4740 154

312 16 - -

271 151 25 119

10 3 - -
 TOTAL NUMBER OF STORES
FORMATWISE
HYPERMARKETS SUPERMARKETS HARD DISCOUNTER CONVENIENCE CASH
AND
CARRY

13866 2629 5791 4765 273

 COUNTRIES FROM WHERE CARREFOUR HAS EXITED

RUSSIA •complicated legislative framework,

widespread bureaucracy and red tape.

•Corruption persisted at both regional

and local levels, further hindering retail
development .

•High indebtedness of local players and

lack of credit deterred acquisitioned
activity

SWITZERLAND •inability to gain enough critical mass in

the difficult Swiss market

• market is protected with many

regulations that make it very difficult to
import grocery products from France into
Switzerland
 COUNTRIES EXITED

JAPAN •Not able to adapt to local customer

needs and expectations

• Japanese love new things and their

trends can change as fast. But Carrefour
gave them the same things as others
supermarkets.Speciality Supermarkets
of medium and small format answer
their needs more than big surfaces

• Its strategy of mass marketing by using

the high volume purchasing savings
with low price didn’t appeal.

•problems finding large real estates

with enough space to build megastores,
and, ultimately, was unable to reach its
goal of 13 Japan stores.
 
 EXITED COUNTRIES
SOUTH KOREA Underperformance led to movement of
its resources to China’s booming $240
billion retail market, where investment
costs are smaller but the potential spoils
are bigger
MEXICO Unsmooth operations- It sold its stores
to a local enterprise CHEDRAUI in 2006
MALAYSIA, THAILAND AND SINGAPORE Growth of the hypermarket industry in
Malaysia was not spectacular compared
to the opportunities presented by the
fast-growing Indian market. So it closed
operations in these countries
HONG KONG On September 18, 2000 there were
complaints from manufacturers about
selling products (especially electronics)
at prices far below those of its
competitors, there were difficulties in
finding sites suitable for developing its
hypermarket concept and quickly
acquiring a significant market share
CHILE In 2004, sold its 8 hypermarkets in Chile
to D&S
Reasons cited were competition and a
lack of options for expansion.