Carrefour plans expansion
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Kasım 20, 2008 00:00
ISTANBUL - CarrefourSA, Turkish operation of the world’s second largest retailer, is looking for new acquisitions in Turkey. The chain has 146 supermarkets in the country.
"Our future plan for Turkey is to continue growing both organically, by opening new stores, and by making new acquisitions. We are looking for potential acquisition targets," Guillaume Vicaire, chief executive of CarrefourSA, told Hürriyet Daily News&Economic Review in Istanbul.
"There is notable potential in Turkish retail as the market is fragmented compared to western Europe. Whereas here, the ratio of supermarkets is 50 percent of all shops and the remaining shops (are) traditional corner shops, in western Europe supermarkets control 80 percent of the sector," he added.
Carrefour opened its first store in Turkey in Istanbul’s İçerenköy district in 1993 and since then has invested some YTL 2 billion in Turkey. This year alone, the chain has opened 38 stores, three of which were "hypermarkets," and 35 supermarkets. Earlier this month the chain opened its first store in Tatvan in eastern Turkey, a town where previously no major supermarket had been present.
At present the chain employs some 7,000 people in 36 provinces. "Turkey is a dynamic country with a young, hard-working population... In the next three years our plan is to employ 7,000 more people in Turkey," Vicaire said.
Carrefour said Tuesday it would replace its chief executive with a former top manager of Switzerland's Nestle, the culmination of long-simmering tension over the French retail giant's performance and strategy. Carrefour's board named Swede Lars Olofsson to replace outgoing chief executive Jose Luis Duran.
The new chief executive will have no shortage of suggestions about how to revive the retailer, but driving through change in an economic downturn may prove difficult.
Analysts agree on the problems Olofsson has to address; underperformance of Carrefour's main French hypermarket business and a re-balancing of its international operations.
"There is notable potential in Turkish retail as the market is fragmented compared to western Europe. Whereas here, the ratio of supermarkets is 50 percent of all shops and the remaining shops (are) traditional corner shops, in western Europe supermarkets control 80 percent of the sector," he added.
Carrefour opened its first store in Turkey in Istanbul’s İçerenköy district in 1993 and since then has invested some YTL 2 billion in Turkey. This year alone, the chain has opened 38 stores, three of which were "hypermarkets," and 35 supermarkets. Earlier this month the chain opened its first store in Tatvan in eastern Turkey, a town where previously no major supermarket had been present.
At present the chain employs some 7,000 people in 36 provinces. "Turkey is a dynamic country with a young, hard-working population... In the next three years our plan is to employ 7,000 more people in Turkey," Vicaire said.
Carrefour said Tuesday it would replace its chief executive with a former top manager of Switzerland's Nestle, the culmination of long-simmering tension over the French retail giant's performance and strategy. Carrefour's board named Swede Lars Olofsson to replace outgoing chief executive Jose Luis Duran.
The new chief executive will have no shortage of suggestions about how to revive the retailer, but driving through change in an economic downturn may prove difficult.
Analysts agree on the problems Olofsson has to address; underperformance of Carrefour's main French hypermarket business and a re-balancing of its international operations.