Carrefour
Carrefour Group, S.A., is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. By 2024, the group had 14,000 stores in 40 countries. It is the seventh-largest retailer in the world by revenue.
History
The first Carrefour shop opened in 1960, within suburban Annecy, near a crossroads. The group was created in 1958 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 May 2011, Carrefour decided to invest €1.5 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 January 2025, the Puig & fils group, then in April 2025 the Magne group, 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.
Financial data
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, which was until 1999 the former Promodès headquarters.In France, Carrefour operates under its name over 230 hypermarkets, 1020 Carrefour Market supermarkets, 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 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 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 on 2015.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 they vacated.
Cameroon
CFAO Group opened the first supermarket in 2017.Senegal
CFAO Group opened the first supermarket in 2018.Uganda
The first hypermarket opened in 2020. The anchor clients are located at Oasis Mall and Metroplex and are in spaces previously occupied by the Kenyan retail chain Nakumatt.In September 2021, Carrefour signed an agreement with Shoprite of South Africa for the former to take over six stores that the latter would vacate in Uganda. This has increased Carrefour's presence in the country significantly.
As of 2023, there are six outlets located in Kampala: Acacia Mall, Arena Mall, Lugogo Mall, Metroplex, Oasis Mall and Village Mall. One outlet is located in Victoria Mall in Entebbe.
Gabon
In 2021, Carrefour announced the opening of its first store in Libreville with Prix Import as a franchise partner. As of July 2025 there are 9 stores.Madagascar
The first hypermarket opened in 2021.Mauritius
The first hypermarket opened in 2024.Democratic Republic of Congo
The first hypermarket opened in 2025.Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
start in Ethiopia 2026 midroc investment group franchise agreementEast and South Asia
Armenia
On March 11, 2015, Carrefour opened its first store is located in Yerevan Mall, Yerevan. It had around 7,000 m2 space. 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 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 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 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 and was looking to invest another in Pakistan. It is operating at least seven hypermarkets and one superstore in Pakistan.
Taiwan
In 2020, Carrefour Taiwan announced they would acquire 199 Wellcome and 25 Jasons Market Place stores from Dairy Farm International.In 2022, Carrefour announced that it sold 60% equity of Carrefour Taiwan to Uni-President Enterprises Corporation.
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.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, 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 has 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 October 2025, Carrefour's French division is known to operate 3 stores in Monaco, one each of the standard, Market, and City store types.