Carrefour

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.

Domestic operations

The headquarters of the Groupe Carrefour is in Massy, in the Paris metropolitan area. In 2019, the former Carrefour head office of Boulogne-Billancourt and the Carrefour France division office of Courcouronnes, Essonne, near Évry, were combined at that major location. A secondary head office is located in Mondeville, near Caen (Normandy), which was until 1999 the former Promodès headquarters.

In France, Carrefour operates under its name over 230 hypermarkets (from 2500 up to 23000 sq m sales area), 1020 Carrefour Market supermarkets (generally from 1000 up to 4000 sq m), and over 2000 smaller supermarkets and convenience stores under the Carrefour City, Carrefour Contact and Carrefour Express banners.

Carrefour also owns the Promocash Cash&Carry chain (130 locations) and supplies 1500 independent small food stores under the Proxi banner.

In 2019, the group launched its first Supeco soft discount stores, which are so far all located in the French Northern region Hauts-de-France.

In December 2023, Carrefour and Uber decided to team up to get access to the French supermarket chain's charging points for electric vehicles. Uber has invested around $323,400 to allow its VTC (tourist vehicle with drivers) drivers using EVs to charge their cars in the Carrefour Énergies' stations in France.

International operations

By 2024, the group had 14,000 stores in 40 countries.

Africa

Tunisia

The first hypermarket opened in 2001.

Egypt

The first hypermarket opened in 2002.

Morocco

The first hypermarket opened in 2009.

Algeria

The first hypermarket opened in 2015.

Ivory Coast

CFAO Group opened the first hypermarket in Playce Shopping Mall in Abidjan in 2015.

Ethiopia

Operations in Ethiopia are expected to commence in 2026 through the signing of a franchise agreement with Midroc Investment Group.

Kenya

The retailer is the anchor client of The Hub Karen Mall where it opened its first Kenyan store in May 2016. A second outlet was opened at Two Rivers Mall in March 2017, soon followed by a third store the Thika Road Mall in November 2017. The fourth outlet was opened at the Junction Mall along Ngong Road in January 2018; the fifth at Sarit Center in April 2018.

In June 2020, Carrefour opened a new store along Uhuru Highway. In September 2020, Carrefour announced plans to continue its expansion efforts by opening three branches in the coastal city of Mombasa. In May 2021 it opened another branch of Carrefour Market in Garden City Mall along the Thika superhighway. It also has a branch at Westgate Mall previously occupied by ShopRite.

Carrefour has 28 outlets in Kenya, largely located in the suburbs of Nairobi. The retailer's expansion into Kenya has benefited from the failure of previously dominant supermarket chains such as Nakumatt and Uchumi as Carrefour rushed in to occupy the retail spaces and market share it vacated.

Asia

Armenia

On 11 March 2015 Carrefour opened its first store located in Yerevan Mall, Yerevan. It had around 7,000 m2 space (without offices). President Serzh Sargsyan was present at the opening. A second store was opened in Rossia Mall in downtown Yerevan. As of September 2025, Carrefour Armenia has two major stores (hypermarkets / markets) and several smaller "express" shops.

Between 2015 and 2024, Carrefour stores in Armenia were franchised by Majid Al Futtaim Group. In late 2024, Carrefour Armenia changed its franchise to Food Depot LLC and changed its logo to the original French logo.

Pakistan

In 2009, Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Lahore in a joint venture with Majid Al Futtaim Group, where it achieved 1 billion Pakistani rupees in revenues in its first year. It attracted more than 1 million customers every month. On 14 November 2011, Hyperstar opened its second hypermarket in the country in Karachi. On 22 March 2016, it expanded its operations to Islamabad by opening a 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m2) hypermarket in World Trade Center Islamabad.

Since 20 December 2018, MAF has rebranded Hyperstar to Carrefour across Pakistan. It has plans to expand its stores to other cities including Gujranwala, Multan and Hyderabad. As of June 2019, the group had already invested ₨8 billion and was looking to invest another ₨40 billion in Pakistan. It is operating at least seven hypermarkets (three in Lahore, two in Karachi, one in Islamabad and one in Faisalabad's Lyallpur Galleria) and one superstore in Pakistan.

Mongolia

On 17 February 2023, Carrefour opened its first two stores in the nation's capital Ulaanbaatar, with the partnership of Altan Joloo. As of 7 December 2025, it has 19 stores. The largest branch is at Sila Centre.

Majid Al Futtaim has handled the Carrefour operations in the Middle East and North Africa region since 1995, as the company opened the region's first hypermarket at City Centre Deira – it initially was a Continent-branded store before it converted to Carrefour four years later. As of 2020, Majid Al Futtaim operates over 320 Carrefour stores in 16 countries, serving more than 750,000 customers daily and employing over 37,000 workers.

Europe (outside France)

In 1991, Carrefour established a company in Turkey, and in 1993 it opened its first hypermarket in Istanbul. In 1996, a partnership with the Turkish conglomerate Sabancı Holding was established and all stores were rebranded as CarrefourSA. As of 2025, there are 1,500 stores operating across Turkey.

In 1999, Carrefour entered the Greek market in collaboration with Marinopoulos S.A. Carrefour stopped operating in Greece in 2017 due to its acquisition by the Sklavenitis group. The company reopened in the country in May 2022, and the reactivation of the Carrefour brand in the market will be done in collaboration with Retail & more S.A., a subsidiary of the Teleunicom group.

In 2001, Carrefour entered the Romanian market, expanded into 43 stores. It is one of the top retailers in Romania.

The company operates in Spain under the name of Centros Comerciales Carrefour SA. As of 2019, Carrefour Spain is the 15th most important Spanish company by revenue.

Eight years after bankruptcy (2016), Carrefour returned to Bulgaria under the brands of Carrefour "Market" and "Express". As of June 2024, there are stores open in Varna, Sofia and Burgas.

In December 2023, Carrefour announced the "return of stores and products" of its brand in Bulgaria through the Greek franchisee Retail & More, which will provide "sub-franchising of the Carrefour brand" for at least around 20 stores.

As of February 2026, Carrefour's French division is known to operate 3 stores in Monaco, one each of the standard, Market, and City store types.

Americas

Argentina

Around 605 stores are in operation in Argentina as of 2021.

Brazil

Carrefour Brazil, the largest market outside France, was founded in 1975 and today is the major supermarket chain in Brazil in competition with Grupo Pão de Açúcar. In 2017, it sells more than 25 million products per year.

Dominican Republic

Carrefour Dominican Republic, opened its first store in Santo Domingo in 2000 and it has expanded to other smaller stores in the city called Carrefour Market and Carrefour City with a total of five stores in 2023.

Former international operations

Albania

In July 2011, Carrefour announced that its first hypermarket in Albania would be opening in November 2011, the hypermarket later opened at the Tirana East Gate mall. In 2016, all Carrefour stores in Albania were sold and then converted to SPAR.

Austria

In 1976 Carrefour opened a store in the Shopping City Süd at the southern edge of Vienna. Due to limited success, the store closed soon after. Carrefour has not made any other attempt at entering the Austrian market after that.

Bahrain

Carrefour opened hypermarkets in Bahrain on 2007, which were franchised by Majid Al-Futtaim, however all stores in Bahrain closed and were replaced by HyperMax in 2025.

Chile

Carrefour opened six supermarkets in Santiago de Chile between 1998 and 2003. However, Carrefour never surpassed a 3% market share in the country and its assets in Chile were sold to D&S in 2003.

China

Carrefour entered China in 1995. In 2007, Carrefour opened 22 stores in China – where the company broke its record for store openings in a one-year period. It was the leading foreign retailer in terms of sales figures, until 2008 and has since lost its No. 1 position in China to Walmart. In 2019, Carrefour sold 80% equity of Carrefour China to local retail comglomorate Suning.com at €620 million, marking the company's exit from China.

Colombia

In October 2012, Carrefour sold all 72 stores in Colombia to Chilean retailer Cencosud for $2.6 billion, with Cencosud converting all existing Carrefour hypermarkets to its Jumbo and Metro brands. Carrefour pulled out of Colombia to focus on its core markets.

Criticism and controversies

On 1 May 2007, more than 30 employees of the now-closed Carrefour Ratu Plaza, Jakarta, Indonesia, were taken to the Pertamina Central Hospital after being poisoned by carbon monoxide. The hypermarket was located in the mall's basement, which offered insufficient ventilation.

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 of its French stores disclosing the false advertising.

In Carrefour Mangga Dua Square in Jakarta, Indonesia, a 5-metre high metal rack fell on top of a 3-year-old boy, killing him almost instantly due to internal bleeding. Afterwards, the victim's family claimed that Carrefour has refused to meet with them to settle the case. However, a Carrefour Corporate Affairs Officer denied this allegation.

Carrefour has also received criticism for engaging in sweatshop practices.

On 7 May 2009, the French government asked a tribunal to fine Carrefour some €220,000 for more than 2,500 violations. Meat products lacked proper tracking information (more than 25% of inventory at some locations), and some products had incorrect labels – such as meat products that "shrank" in weight by 15% after receiving labels. The chain sold products that had long since passed their expiration dates, including, in one case, packs of baby formula that had expired six months earlier. Some 1,625 frozen and refrigerated products were found that had been stored in warehouses at ambient temperatures.

On 17 September 2018, images revealed that the municipal slaughterhouse in Boischaut, France, responsible for supplying meat to Carrefour, was killing animals in an extremely cruel way: cutting them up while they were still alive. The mistreatment scandal reverberated around the world and led to the closure of the slaughterhouse.

Boycott of supplies in China

In April 2008, after the 2008 Olympic torch relay was disrupted by Tibetan independence movement advocates in London and especially in Paris, where some protesters attempted to wrest control of the torch from the torch bearers, Chinese activists promoted boycotting Carrefour because of unsubstantiated rumours that the company gave funds to Tibetan independence groups and the Dalai Lama. In its response, Carrefour China stated that it did support the Beijing Olympics; and that it would never do anything to harm the feelings of the Chinese people. Protests and calls for the boycott later subsided, partly because of efforts by French officials to apologize for the Paris torch attack.

Building collapse at Savar

On 24 April 2013, the eight-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed in Savar, a sub-district near Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. At least 1,127 people died and over 2,438 were injured. The factory housed a number of separate garment factories employing around 5,000 people, several shops, and a bank and manufactured apparel for brands including the Benetton Group, Joe Fresh, The Children's Place, Primark, Monsoon, and Dressbarn. Of the 29 brands identified as having sourced products from the Rana Plaza factories, only 9 attended meetings held in November 2013 to agree a proposal on compensation to the victims. Several companies refused to sign, including Walmart, Carrefour, Bonmarché, Mango, Auchan and KiK. The agreement was signed by Primark, Loblaw, Bonmarché and El Corte Ingles.

Slavery in Thailand

In 2014, The Guardian reported that Carrefour is a client of Charoen Pokphand Foods. During a six-month investigation, The Guardian traced the entire supply chain from slave ships in Asian waters to leading producers and retailers.

Incidents of violence in Brazil

Carrefour Brazil has suffered at least four lawsuits against violence, racism and homophobia. Some notable incidents include the killing of Manchinha, an abandoned female mixed-breed dog that was beaten to death by a Carrefour employee, as well as the Killing of João Alberto Silveira Freitas.

Deforestation in Amazonia

According to Mighty Earth, Carrefour is not respecting its commitments to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. In a report at the occasion of the 2022 World Amazon Day, Mighty Earth published a statement criticising the retail group for sourcing from "meat and soy traders with devastating practices." The organisation points to the group's activities in Brazil where, with its 1,000 sales outlets, Carrefour controls 25% of the food distribution market. The NGO found that two-thirds of the 102 meat products inspected in Carrefour stores in Brazil are supplied by JBS, which is "regularly targeted for deforestation cases", according to Mighty Earth. Following the report publication, Carrefour suspended beef supplies from two JBS slaughterhouses in the Amazon.

Stabbing in Italy

On 27 October 2022, a man grabbed a knife from a supermarket shelf in Milan, stabbing five people, killing one and wounding four others, including Spanish soccer player Pablo Mari, Italian authorities said.

Police arrested a 46-year-old Italian man suspected in the attack at a shopping centre in Assago (a town near Milan).

Mobile

Carrefour Mobile is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) owned by Carrefour.

Carrefour offers its mobile telephony services in:

Belgium (as Carrefour Mobile);

France (as Carrefour Mobile);

Spain (as Carrefour Móvil);

Italy (as 1Mobile, also known as UNO Mobile or Carrefour UNO Mobile);

Greece (as Carrefour Mobile);

Poland (as Carrefour Mova Mobile);

Brazil (as Carrefour Mobile).

Carrefour first launched its mobile service in Belgium, in partnership with Effortel and using Effortel Technologies as Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE), on the existing BASE network infrastructure.

In France, this offer was launched by exploiting the infrastructure of the Orange network and using the company Experian as MVNE. This operator first offered prepaid offers, and since September 2007 has offered packages. Carrefour Mobile's offer is in competition with that offered by A-Mobile, of the Auchan group.

Since then, Carrefour has launched a service in several other countries, in particular, Carrefour was the first MVNO in Italy, launching the service in June 2007, in partnership with Effortel.

On 24 September 2012 the MVNO offer stopped in France but the brand maintained a specific offer provided by Orange.

Carrefour Foundation

The Carrefour Foundation (Fondation d'Enterprise Carrefour) is a philanthropic fund created by Carrefour in 2000 to support social welfare programmes 'linked to [its] core business as a retailer' in countries the company operates and in countries where its suppliers are located.