June 18, 2011
Carrefour
What is Carrefour: It is a French international hypermarket chain. Headquartered in Levallois-Perret, France,Carrefour is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world.
Founder(s): Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey
Brands: Atacadão, Hyperstar, Bairro, Express, Market, Dia, Ed, Marche Plus, Proxi , Sherpa, Dìperdì, Smile Market, Ok!, Express
Carrefour History
The first store opened on June 3, 1959, in suburban Annecy near a crossroads . 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.
Brand Name: Carrefour literally means ‘Crossroads’ in French.
Carrefour Trivia
- The founders were inspired by several seminars they had attended in the United States led by “The Pope of modern distribution” Bernardo Trujillo. Their slogan was ‘No Parking. No Business’.
- In April 1976, they launched a private label Produits libres (free products) line of fifty foodstuffs, including oil, biscuits (crackers and cookies), milk, and pasta, sold in unbranded white packages at substantially lower prices.
- The retail group pioneered the concept of a hypermarket, a large supermarket and a department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket June 15, 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France.
- It opened its first hypermarket in Spain under ‘PRYCA’ banner.
- It literally means ‘Crossroads’ in French.
Although the famous retailers are Walmart, Tesco & Target , not many know that Carrefour is the world’s second largest retailer.
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