Understanding the retail internationalisation
process: a study of Carrefour
Marc Dupuis
Roy Larke
Sang Chul Choi
Introduction
Carrefour is now the second largest retailer in the world by sales. It acquired this title through its merger with another French retail company, Promodes in September 1999. That being said, Carrefour is still only a third the size of the number one company, Wal-Mart, with a turnover in 2001 of some $60 billion as compared to $180 billion at its US rival. Carrefour is, nonetheless, a leading global retailer with an significant international presence.
At the end of 2001 Carrefour had an established market presence in 31 countries. It operates stores in each of the four major continents and sub-regions of Western Europe, Central Europe, South America, and Asia. It is a multi-format group operating hypermarkets, supermarkets, discount stores, and conveniences stores.
Historically, Carrefour is recognised as the inventor of the hypermarket format, the first of which opened in the outskirts of Paris in 1963. The hypermarket format has been and remains Carrefour’s primary retail format and has played a key role in the company’s internationalisation process.
Today, Carrefour faces the growing complexity of managing a global retail company that controls multi store format operations under a multicultural strategy.
