CARREFOUR

'Carrefour SA' () (IPA: /karfur/) is a French international hypermarket chain, with a global network of outlets. It is the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and sales figures after Wal-Mart. Carrefour operates mainly in the European Union, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, but also has shops in North Africa and Asia. Carrefour means cross-road in French[1].

Contents

History

Carrefour around the world in March 2006

Americas

Asia

Africa

Europe

Criticism and Controversies

Former countries

See also

References

External links

History

The first Carrefour store opened on 3 June 1957, in suburban Annecy near a crossroads (''carrefour'' in French). Today it is the smallest Carrefour location in the world. The group was created by Marcel Fournier and Denis 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 on the French market.
Marcel Fournier and Denis 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, 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^[1].
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 package 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. 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.

Carrefour around the world in March 2006

Americas

★ Carrefour is the first operator in Latin America, with a presence in 4 countries: Brazil, Argentina,Colombia, and the Dominican Republic. Carrefour is active in 3 types of retail distribution : hypermarkets, supermarkets and hard discounters, and is entering the Cash & Carry market in Brazil, after the purchase of Atacadão^[2].

'Country'	'First store'	'Number of stores'	'Hypermarkets'	'Supermarkets'	'Hard Discounters'	'Cash & Carry'
Argentina	1982	462	28	114	320	-
Brazil	1975	337	105	35	201	34 (purchase pending)
Colombia	1998	35	35	-	-	-
Dominican Republic	2000	1	1	-	-	-

Asia

★ Carrefour was the first international retailer to establish a presence in Asia in 1989, when it entered in Taiwan through a joint venture with Uni President Enterprises Corporation. It leveraged its experience it had 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 [2]. Also, it just opened in Kuwait in the new Avenues mall. In Oman, it was opened in 2003 on the outskirts of the city of Muscat.

'Country'	'First store'	'Number of stores'	'Hypermarkets'	'Supermarkets'	'Hard Discounters'
People's Republic of China	1995	307	90	-	255
Indonesia	1998	30	30	-	-
Jordan	2007	1	1	-	-
Kuwait	2007	1	1	-	-
Malaysia	1994	11	11	-	-
Oman	2003	2	2	-	-
Qatar	2000	3	3	-	-
Saudi Arabia	2003	3	3	-	-
Singapore	1997	2	2	-	-
South Korea	1996	31	-	-	-
Taiwan	1989	47	47	-	-
Thailand	1996	24	24	-	-
Turkey	1993	433	13	71	349
United Arab Emirates	1998	11	11	-	-

Africa

'Country'	'First store'	'Number of stores'	'Hypermarkets'	'Supermarkets'	'Hard Discounters'
Algeria	2006	1	1	-
Egypt	2000	3	3	-
Tunisia	2001	1	1	-	-

Europe

★ Carrefour is the market leader in Europe

'Country'	'First store'	'Number of stores'	'Hypermarkets'	'Supermarkets'	'Hard Discounters'	'Convenience Stores'	'Cash & Carry'
Belgium	2000	135	56	79	-	-	-
Bulgaria	(2008)[3]	-	-	-	-	-	-
France	1960	1,688	191	603	786	-	108
Greece	1991	495	20	151	272	52	-
Italy	1993	461	51	239	-	155	16
Poland	1997	103	42	73	-	-	-
Portugal	1992	303	12	-	296	-	-
Romania	2000	8	8	-	-	-	-
Russia	(2008)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Slovakia	1998	4	4	-	-	-	-
Spain	1973	2,119	218	81	1,899	-	-
Switzerland	2001	9	9	-	-	-	-
Cyprus	2005	9	5	4	-	-	-
Europe	1960	5,399	492	1,275	3,253	207	124

'Cyprus'
In 2005 Carrefour entered the Cypriot market through the 100% take over of Chris Cash & Carry a local supermarket chain. ^{[3]
[4] [5]}

Criticism and Controversies

Carrefour has been criticised numerous times for the treatment of its workers throughout the world. For example, in Doha, Qatar, it brings in workers from developing nations, such as the Philippines, and houses them in a walled compound in which workers typically live six to an apartment, sharing one kitchen and one bathroom. Carrefour holds onto their passports and imposes a curfew at night, with a guard at the gate to catch violators. Employees work 6 days a week, and minimal health insurance is provided; anything more than a basic check-up, including the deductible, is not covered, and at the standard pay scale of 1500-1700 Qatari Riyals a month, a medical emergency could easily wipe out two months earnings. At the City Centre Mall location in Doha, workers will be scheduled to work from 17:00 to midnight, then be expected back the next day at 07:00. Management will also "split" an employee's schedule, meaning he or she has to come in, work four hours, leave, then come back later in the day to work four more.[6] Also, the workers are allowed a one hour break, but managers will schedule their break as early as two hours into the shift, meaning they will have to eat "lunch" as early as 10:00 and work non-stop for the following six hours.[7] Employees are not allowed private vehicles, so they must rely on the company shuttle bus. The worst criticism has come for Carrefour's "sub-contractor" sweatshops in Haiti, where workers earn as little as USD 0.60 a day, and no more than $3.[8] Carrefour has also received criticism for engaging in sweatshop practices.
^[6]
In Malaysia, Carrefour refuses to take faulty goods returned to them at their customer service desk and instead directs customers to send the goods to third-party service centres, in apparent violation of the law requiring the supplier themselves to remedy such defects.^[7]
In Carrefour Mangga Dua, Jakarta, Indonesia, a 5-metre high metal rack fell on top a 3-year old boy, killing the boy almost instantly due to internal bleeding.^[8] Afterwards, the victim's family claimed that Carrefour has refused to meet with them to settle the case.^[9] However, Carrefour Corporate Affairs Officer denied this allegation^[10]
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 its French stores disclosing the false advertising.^[11]

Former countries

★ 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 Czech Republic and in 2000 in Slovakia. The stores still use the Carrefour name and brand.

★ 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 its competitors had. Carrefour previously had stores in Tsuen Wan and Heng Fa Chuen.

★ Japan-In 2005, Carrefour sold its 8 hypermarkets to AEON group. But stores still use the Carrefour name and brand.

★ Korea-In 2006, Carrefour was selling its 32 hypermarkets to E-Land. The stores are being re-branded as Homever, a chain of supermarkets specialized on home furnishing.

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

★ United Kingdom-Carrefour had several hypermarkets in the UK until the 1980s. The first of these was opened in the early 1970s in Caerphilly, South Wales. Subsequent outlets were opened at Merry Hill, Dudley, Glasshoughton (near Castleford), Eastleigh, MetroCentre Telford and Cribbs Causeway in Bristol. All stores were later sold to Asda and converted to supercentre formats, except Merry Hill.

★ United States-Carrefour opened hypermarkets in Philadelphia and Voorhees Township, New Jersey, in 1988 and 1992 respectively. Both stores closed in 1993. Some associates wore roller skates to facilitate moving about the large building. The Voorhees location now houses a Kohl's department store, a Raymour and Flanigan furniture store, and a Marshalls discount clothing store, while the Philadelphia location houses a Wal-Mart and a few tiny stores.

★ A fully functional, ready-to-open Carrefour hypermarket in Bali, Indonesia is currently having problems prior to opening in March, 2007 due to convoluted legal disputes with the Balinese Tribal Regencies.

★ Portugal-In July 2007 Carrefour sold all of its 12 hypermarkets and 9 fuel stations to Sonae, for 662 million euros. Also included were 11 licenses for opening new commercial spaces.

See also

★ European Retail Round Table

★ List of French companies

★ Carrefour Laval

★ Carrefour Marinopoulos

References

1. Hugues Joublin, ''L'aventure du premier hyper'', L'Expansion, 06/05/1993
2. Carrefour purchases Atacadão and becomes leader of the segment in Brazil - UOL (Portuguese)
3.
4. [4]
5. [5]
6. [9]
7. English translation of Consumer Protection Act of Malaysia
8. A 3-year old boy died when a metal rack fell onto him
9. Victims Family is Refused to Meet Carrefour Officials
10. Carrefour Officials deny refusing victim's family
11. (French) Carrefour condamné pour publicité mensongère

External links

★ Official site

★ Yahoo! - Carrefour SA Company Profile