About Company
Carrefour is a France-based transnational wholesale and retail conglomerate with its central office in Massy, France.
In terms of revenue, Carrefour ranks as the 8th biggest retail merchant in the world. Carrefour runs a string of convenience stores, supermarkets, and foodstuff shops. As of December 2021, all these collectively consist of 13,894 outlets in more than thirty nations.
What type of company is Carrefour?
Carrefour is a Société anonyme.
To which industry does Carrefour belong?
Carrefour belongs to the wholesale and retail Industry.
When did the company come into existence?
The company started operations on January 1, 1958, 65 years back.
Who are the originators of Carrefour?
The originators of the company are:
- Denis Defforey
- Marcel Fournier
- Jacques Defforey
Where is the central office of the company located?
The head office of the company is situated in Essonne, France.
In how many locations is Carrefour present?
As of 2021, there were 13,894 outlets in the company.
Which area does it serve?
Carrefour serves the following territories:
- Middle East
- Europe
- East Africa
- North Africa
- East Asia
- South Asia
- South America
Who are the key people behind the prosperous journey of the company over the years?
The key people playing a substantial role in the fruitful journey of the company are:
- Matthieu Malige (Chief Financial Officer)
- Alexandre Bompard (Chairman and CEO)
Alexandre Bompard
Alexandre Bompard was born on October 4 1972. He is a France-based entrepreneur. In 2011, Bompard won the CEO position of Fnac, a retail store chain. Since July 2017, Alexandre has been serving as the CEO and Chairman of Carrefour. Furthermore, since 8th September 2017, Bompard has been the Carrefour Foundation’s chairman.
Alexandre Bompard’s birthplace is Saint-Étienne, France. He is the child of Alain Bompard, a capitalist. From 1997 to 2003, he served as the AS Saint-Étienne soccer club president. So, he got an introduction to the business sector very early.
Bompard is an alumnus of two esteemed Paris-based academic institutions, and they are:
- The National School of Administration (Cyrano de Bergerac class)
- The Paris Institute of Political Studies
He is married to Charlotte Bompard and has three daughters. His wife Charlotte is the Bobigny High Court vice president. Bompard holds the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award, a prestigious honor in France.
Matthieu Malige
Matthieu Malige graduated from École des Travaux Publics and HEC Business School. He also has a postgraduate degree (Master of Science) from UCLA.
Malige began his professional life with Lazard Frères.
From 2003 to 2011, Matthieu occupied different berths inside the Carrefour group, including:
- Chief Financial Officer of Carrefour Belgium
- Director of Strategy and Development
- Chief Financial Officer of Carrefour France
In 2011, Malige became a part of the Fnac group as the CFO (Chief Financial Officer). On 20th July 2016, after Fnac took over Darty, Matthieu became the Fnac Darty Group Chief Financial Officer.
On 16th October 2017, Malige got the berth as the Chief Financial Officer of the Carrefour group.
What are the services provided by Carrefour?
The prominent services offered by Carrefour are the following:
- Warehouse club
- Cash and carry
- Hypermarket
- Discount store
- Superstore
- Supercenter
- Supermarket
How many people work for Carrefour?
As of 2021, the company has hired 319,565 employees.
Timeline
1958-1960
The inaugural Carrefour store (not a supermarket) commenced trading in 1960, inside uptown Annecy, close to an intersection. Therefore, Carrefour, the name, denotes intersection in the French language. Jacques Defforey, Denis Defforey, and Marcel Fournier formed the group in 1958. They went to various conferences and got motivated by them in the US, headed by Bernardo Trujillo, also known as the Pope of retail.
1963
The group was the oldest in Europe to launch a huge supermarket, a hypermarket, and a large retail store under the same ceiling. On June 15, 1963, they launched their opening hypermarket in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, close to Paris.
1976
In April, Carrefour unveiled Produits libres, a private brand (complimentary merchandise– libre denotes complimentary in the feel of freedom rather than costless) range of 50 groceries, comprising biscuits (cookies and crackers), oil, pasta, and milk, marketed in unlabeled white packets at considerably cheaper rates.
1999
This year, the company amalgamated with Promodès, more familiar via its retail streamers Champion (for supermarkets) or Continent (for hypermarkets). It was one of the key contenders in the French marketplaces.
2009
In September, Carrefour modified its emblem.
2011
In May, Carrefour appraised its commercial position under sluggish development and mounting contest in France from competitors such as Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA. Subsequently, the company settled to spend US $2.22 billion (€1.5 billion) to launch the supermarket idea of Carrefour Planet in West Europe.
2015
In April, Abílio Diniz, an entrepreneur from Brazil, disclosed he was in dialogues to elevate his 5.07% shareholding in Carrefour. He also got the endorsement of the shareowners to bag a board position.
2017
On June 9, 2017, the Carrefour board of directors picked Alexandre Bompard as the new Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the company with effect from July 18, 2017.
In the same year, Carrefour commenced functioning with Expliceat, a tiny France-based start-up venture, on a test run footing. Expliceat constructed a mercantile site that is tailored to grind remaining bread. It leases the site to profit-making bakehouses and subsequently utilizes the breadcrumb for baking hotcakes, muffins, and cookies.
2018
In January, Alexandre Bompard came up with a tactical arrangement for the organization with the title Carrefour 2022. This scheme attempts to turn Carrefour into the stalwart of food evolution for everyone. The strategy incorporates steps for improved food and packaging viability, restraint of discarded food, growth of organic/natural goods, e-business joint ventures, and 2 billion euros as yearly outlay from 2018, together with executive and cost-cutting procedures.
2019
In the special circumstance of the COVID-19 epidemic, Carrefour became the first retail merchant to be a part of the C’est qui le Patron Campaign. The goal was to distribute its surplus gains associated with COVID-19 to aid individuals affected by the present scenario. As stated by Nicolas Chabanne, the company’s co-founder, it has spent 100,000 Euros already, and subsequently 50,000 Euros weekly till May 11.
The company’s Board of Directors had settled to cut down the proposed dividend by 50% for 2019. Then, the dividend given was €0.69 per share (opposed to €0.46 per share).
Till the closing of the year, Bompard and all the BOD members of the Carrefour Group had resolved to relinquish 25% of the payments of their director. Money saved in this way would be utilized for financing commonality measures for the firm’s workers overseas and in France.
Alexandre Bompard was determined to forego 25% of his fixed remuneration for sixty days. He provided a special incentive of €1,000 net to eighty-five thousand French workers to convey his thankfulness to his recruits in the domain.
Financial performance over the years
(Financial information in billion €)
Inland operations
The central office of the Carrefour Group is in Massy, in the urban district of Paris. Since 2019, this key position has assembled the Carrefour France segment bureau of Courcouronnes, Essonne, France, close to Évry and the erstwhile Carrefour HQ of Boulogne-Billancourt. A minor control centre is there in Mondeville, close to Caen in Normandy. Till 1999, this served as the erstwhile Promodès central office.
In the French territory, Carrefour runs the following:
- More than 230 hypermarkets under its brand name (ranging from 2,500 sq m to 23,000 sq m retailing space)
- More than 2,000 small-scale food marts and supermarkets under the streamers Carrefour Express, Carrefour Contact, and Carrefour City.
- 1,020 supermarkets under Carrefour Market (typically ranging from 1,000 sq m to 4,000 sq m)
Besides Carrefour is the proprietor of the Promocash Cash&Carry chain, and it provides 1,500 self-governing small-scale convenience stores under the title Proxi. Promocash runs 130 sites altogether. Lately, it took over Bio C’Bon and SoBio, both organic food chains, for enhancing its footprints in this optimistic sector.
In 2019, the Carrefour group introduced its opening Supeco megastores, which are hitherto all situated in Hauts-de-France, the Northern territory of France. The model is still under evaluation.
Overseas Operations
Africa
Carrefour is operational in Africa in the following regions:
- Kenya
- Egypt
- Uganda
- Tunisia
- Morocco
South and East Asia
The company has a presence in the following countries:
- Taiwan
- Pakistan
- Mainland China
Europe (beyond France)
Other than France, the company has operations in the following nations:
- Belgium
- Albania
- Greece
- Georgia
- Poland
- Italy
- Spain
- Romania
Middle East Operations
In the Middle East, the company operates in the following territories:
- Bahrain
- Armenia
- Iraq
- Iran
- Jordan
- Israel
- Lebanon
- Kuwait
- Saudi Arabia
- Oman
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
South America
The Latin American operations are prevailing in just two countries:
- Brazil
- Argentina
Previous stores
- Bulgaria
- Austria
- Colombia
- Chile
- Czech Republic
- Cyprus
- Hong Kong
- Germany
- Indonesia
- India
- Kazakhstan
- Japan
- Mexico
- Malaysia
- Portugal
- North Macedonia
- Slovakia
- Singapore
- Russia
- Switzerland
- South Korea
- Thailand
- Syria
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Vietnam
Philanthropy
Fondation d’Enterprise Carrefour (French) or The Carrefour Foundation is a benevolent investment trust that Carrefour formed in 2000. The goal was to aid public assistance campaigns associated with the fundamental business in the form of a retail merchant in nations the firm has a footprint in and nations where its providers are present.
Disputes
Carrefour has been subject to the following controversies:
- Slavery in Thailand, as informed by The Guardian
- Building caving in at Savar, close to Dhaka in Bangladesh in 2013
- Fatalities in Brazil, South America
- Stabbing incident in Milan, Italy (October 27, 2022)
- The embargo on provisions in China in 2008
- Cutting down of trees in Amazonia
Carrefour stock performance
The common stocks of the company are traded on the Euronext Paris stock exchange with the ticker symbol CA. Besides, the stock is a CAC 40 constituent. The ISIN (International Securities Identification Number) for the stock is FR0000120172.
On April 14, 2023, Carrefour S.A. (CA.PA) ended trading at the Euronext Paris stock exchange at € 18.67 with the information furnished below at 05:35 pm CEST (Central European Summer Time).
