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Carrefour

French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation

  • 25 min read
  • 7 chapters

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History

The first Carrefour shop (not a hypermarket) opened in 1960, within suburban Annecy, near a crossroads (hence the name ― carrefour means crossroads in French). The group was created in 1959 by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey, who were influenced by several seminars in the United States led by Bernardo Trujillo.

The Carrefour group was the first in Europe to open a hypermarket: a large supermarket and a department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket on 15 June 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris.

In 1969, the company began opening its first stores beyond national borders, starting with neighboring Belgium. During the 1970s, it started developing its retail network across other continents as well.

In 1999, it merged with the Promodès group through a stock swap. On the Italian market, where it had been present since 1972, it acquired the Generale Supermercati (GS) and DìPerDì networks in 2000, progressively replacing their branding; from 2009, it began to focus on the central-northern area of the country. Its presence in the south developed mainly through franchising.

From 2008, Carrefour decided to invest in Eastern European countries (primarily Romania and Bulgaria) and China, reaching over 100 stores, and launched several openings in Russia and China with strategic consultancy from Citigroup. However, the expansion project in Russia was shelved in 2009 after the opening of a megastore in Moscow, an area that boasted a per capita income twice the national average but was, at the same time, a market that had reached the limit of its potential.

In May 2011, Carrefour decided to invest €1.5 billion ($2.22 billion) to introduce the supermarket concept of Carrefour Planet in Western Europe.

On 9 June 2017, the board of directors chose Alexandre Bompard as its new chairman and chief executive officer as of 18 July 2017.

In 2017, Carrefour began working with a small French start-up focused on food recycling, Expliceat, on a trial basis.

In January 2018, Alexandre Bompard announced a strategic plan for the company, entitled "Carrefour 2022" that included measures for improved food and package sustainability, limitation of food waste, development of organic products, e-commerce partnerships, and two billion euros in annual investments from 2018 as well as organisational and cost reduction measures.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Carrefour was the first retailer to join the C'est qui le Patron ? initiative to share its additional incomes related to COVID-19 to support people who were suffering from pandemic.

In November 2024, Carrefour's Operations in Jordan were later changed to Hypermax by the Majid Al Futtaim Group. The same happened to Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain in January 2025.

In January 2025, the Puig & fils group (92 Petit Casino or Vival supermarkets), then in April 2025 the Magne group (101 Petit Casino or Vival supermarkets), announced that it was leaving the Groupe Casino for Carrefour.

On 12 November 2025, the Saadé family — owners of the shipping-group CMA CGM — acquired a 4% stake in the French retail giant Carrefour, becoming its second-largest shareholder and obtaining a board seat from 1 December 2025.

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