For the year 2023, revenues of global retailer Carrefour was Euro 71 Bn (INR 6.58 Lakh Crores). Worldwide, the company operates over 14,400 stores in 40+ countries across formats such as Hypermarkets, Cash and Carry, Supermarkets, Convenience Stores and E-Commerce.
The company operated a few hypermarkets in India between 2010 – 14. This was also the time when Wal-Mart was operating in India as “Best Price Wholesale” in association with Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Group.
Patrick Lasfargues, CEO of Carrefour International Partnership and Member of the Carrefour Group Executive Committee shared a note on Linkedin about the entry of the company in India.
“नमस्ते भारत , हमें ये बताते हुए बहुत खुशी हो रही है कि हम अपैरल ग्रुप की सजेदारी के साथ भारत में प्रवेश कर रहे हैं।” read his post in Hindi language font.
“Namaste India, we are very happy to announce that we are entering India in Partnership with Apparel Group”, he continued.
Patrick went on to acknowledge that the chain missed out on its expansion in India earlier and is now back in a new partnership with Apparel Group.
He called the second innings of the company as the « India 2.0 » project and elaborated the on the new success levers
“Apparel group, truly entrepreneur, successful and knowing very well the country, already operating more than 250 fashion and food & beverages stores”, he said.
Patrick said that the formats Carrefour plans to develop shall be more adapted to the Indian customers.
“Nevertheless, the fast growing Indian market is not an easy one and requires strong excellence to get a share of it.
Low margin, low prices, strong Ecommerce in place (even easy payment for city mobility…), local manufacturing for Private Label… make it one of a kind”, he added..
Carrefour is entering India to set-up and operate large format stores in metro cities and Tier 2/3 towns when Quick Commerce has taken over the country by a storm.
Operators like Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit by Zomato among others are individually valued at billions of dollars, while consumers value these service providers immensely for the convenience and price discounts they offer from time to time.
Earlier this year, Navil Noronha, CEO, D’Mart had said that they wouldn’t get in to Q-commerce to fight the incumbents, rather would focus on best prices, wide assortments and a great value offering to consumers at their stores.
Reliance Retail is said to have pivoted Q-Commerce through its Jio platforms in select cities. This would be the company’s third attempt, after testing waters in 2021 right after the second Covid-19 lockdown and once again after acquiring Dunzo.
Apparel Group operates over 250 stores across Fashion and F&B. Managing a hypermarket format is a completely different cup of tea. Time will tell whether the timing of the entry of Carrefour was the best.
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