Carrefour facts for kids

For other uses, see Carrefour (disambiguation).

Quick facts for kids
Carrefour S.A.

Type	Public
Traded as	Euronext Paris: CA CAC 40 Component
ISIN	ISIN: [https://isin.toolforge.org/?language=en&isin=FR0000120172 FR0000120172]
Industry	Retail Wholesaling
Founded	1 January 1958; 67 years ago (1958-01-01)
Founders	Marcel Fournier Denis Defforey Jacques Defforey
Headquarters	Massy, Essonne , France
Number of locations	13,894 stores (2021) France: 5,619 Italy: 1,489 Spain: 1,474 Belgium: 792 Poland 755 Brazil: 508 Argentina: 485 Romania: 365 Taiwan: 328 Israel: 50 French territories and the Dominican Republic: 180 Other: 1,525 Retail network hypermarkets: 1,130 supermarkets: 3,574 convenience: 8,642 cash and carry: 440 soft discount: 108
Area served	Europe, Middle East, North Africa, East Africa, South Asia, East Asia, South America
Key people	Alexandre Bompard (Chairman & CEO) Matthieu Malige (CFO)
Services	Cash and carry, warehouse club, discount store, hypermarket, supercenter, superstore, supermarket
Revenue	€81.25 billion (2021) 35.28 billion (France) 21.28 billion (Europe) 13.89 billion (Latam) 2.49 billion (Taiwan)
Operating income	€2.27 billion (2021) 768 million (Latam) 757 million (France) 718 million (Europe) 78 million (Taiwan) ▲ -49 million (global functions)
Net income	€1.07 billion (2021)
Total assets	€47.67 billion (2021)
Total equity	€11.83 billion (2021)
Number of employees	319,565 (2021) 191,707 (Europe) 115,310 (Latam) 12,548 (Asia)

Carrefour (which means "crossroads" in French) is a large French company that sells things like groceries and other products. It's one of the biggest retailers in the world! Carrefour runs many different types of stores, including huge hypermarkets, regular supermarkets, and smaller convenience stores. As of 2021, they had almost 14,000 stores in over 30 countries around the globe.

History of Carrefour
Logos Evolution
Carrefour in France
Carrefour Around the World
Carrefour Foundation
Carrefour Mobile
Images for kids
See also

History of Carrefour

How Carrefour Started

The Carrefour company was founded in 1958 by three people: Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey, and Jacques Defforey. They were inspired by ideas from retail experts in the United States. The very first Carrefour shop opened in 1960 in a town called Annecy, France. It was located near a crossroads, which is how the company got its name!

Opening the First Hypermarket

Carrefour was the first company in Europe to open a "hypermarket." This is a very large store that combines a big supermarket with a department store, all under one roof. Their first hypermarket opened on June 15, 1963, in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris.

New Ideas and Growth

In 1976, Carrefour started selling "free products" (Produits libres). These were basic food items like oil, cookies, milk, and pasta sold in plain white packages at much lower prices. This was a new idea at the time!

In 1999, Carrefour joined with another big French retail company called Promodès. This made Carrefour even larger. In September 2009, Carrefour updated its logo, giving it a fresh new look.

Focusing on the Future

In 2011, Carrefour decided to invest a lot of money to improve its stores in Western Europe. They wanted to introduce a new "Carrefour Planet" concept for their supermarkets.

In 2017, Alexandre Bompard became the new chairman and CEO of Carrefour. Under his leadership, Carrefour started working with a small French company called Expliceat. This company helps turn leftover bread into new products like cookies and muffins, which helps reduce food waste.

In 2018, Alexandre Bompard announced a plan called "Carrefour 2022." This plan aims to make Carrefour a leader in providing better and more sustainable food. It focuses on reducing food waste, offering more organic products, and improving how food is packaged.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Carrefour was the first retailer to share some of its extra earnings to help people affected by the situation. The company's leaders also decided to give up some of their own pay to help employees. Alexandre Bompard even gave a special bonus to 85,000 employees in France to thank them for their hard work.

Logos Evolution

1960-1963
1963-1966

Carrefour in France

The Carrefour supermarket at Faa'a, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Carrefour's main office is in Massy, France. They have many different types of stores across France:

Hypermarkets: Over 230 very large stores.
Carrefour Market: Over 1,000 regular supermarkets.
Smaller Stores: Over 2,000 smaller supermarkets and convenience stores like Carrefour City, Carrefour Contact, and Carrefour Express.

Carrefour City, Paris

Carrefour also owns Promocash, which is a chain of "Cash & Carry" stores for businesses. They also supply many smaller independent food stores. Recently, Carrefour has been buying organic food chains like SoBio and Bio C'Bon to offer more healthy and natural products.

Carrefour Around the World

Current Carrefour operations Past operations

Carrefour has stores in many countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America.

Africa

Kenya: Carrefour has 13 stores in Kenya, mostly in the Nairobi area. They have grown quickly by taking over spaces left by other supermarket chains.
Uganda: Carrefour operates several stores in Uganda's capital city, Kampala, and in Entebbe. They have also taken over stores from other retailers.
West and Central Africa: Carrefour has opened stores in countries like Ivory Coast (Abidjan) and Cameroon (Yaoundé) since 2015.

East and South Asia

Pakistan: Carrefour opened its first store in Pakistan in 2009 under the name Hyperstar. Since 2018, these stores have been rebranded as Carrefour. They plan to open more stores in different cities.
Taiwan: In 2020, Carrefour Taiwan bought 199 Wellcome stores and 25 Jasons Market Place stores.
Mongolia: Carrefour opened its first two stores in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, in February 2023.

Europe (outside France)

Greece: Carrefour stopped operating in Greece for a while but reopened in May 2022.
Romania: Carrefour entered the Romanian market in 2001 and is now one of the top retailers there.
Spain: Carrefour is a very important company in Spain, operating under the name Centros Comerciales Carrefour SA.

West Asia

The Majid Al Futtaim Group has been in charge of Carrefour stores in the Middle East and North Africa since 1995. They operate over 320 Carrefour stores in 16 countries.

Iran: The first Carrefour store in Iran opened in 2009, called HyperStar.
Iraq: Carrefour opened its first store in Erbil in 2011 and has since opened more in other cities like Baghdad.
Israel: In 2022, Carrefour signed a deal to rebrand existing store chains in Israel as Carrefour branches.
Lebanon: Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Beirut in 2013 and has expanded with more stores since then.
United Arab Emirates: In 2022, Carrefour opened its first "Bio" store (focused on organic products) in Dubai.

South America

Argentina: Carrefour has about 605 stores operating in Argentina.
Brazil: Carrefour Brasil started in 1975 and is now the largest supermarket chain in Brazil.
Dominican Republic: Carrefour opened its first store in Santo Domingo in 2000 and has expanded to smaller stores called Carrefour Market and Carrefour City.

Carrefour Foundation

The Carrefour Foundation is a special fund created by Carrefour in 2000. It helps support social programs that are related to Carrefour's business as a retailer. These programs are in countries where Carrefour operates or where its suppliers are located.