Carrefour

Carrefour S.A. (French pronunciation: ​[kaʁfuʁ]) is a French multinational retailer headquartered in Boulogne Billancourt, France, in the Hauts-de-Seine Department near Paris. It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world (with 1,452 hypermarkets at the end of 2011), the fourth largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue (after Wal-Mart, Tesco and Costco), and the third in profit (after Wal-Mart and Tesco). Carrefour operates mainly in Europe, Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, China, Dominican Republic, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia, with most stores being of smaller size than hypermarket or even supermarket. Carrefour means "crossroads" and "public square" in French. Previously the company head office was in Levallois-Perret, also in the Paris suburbs. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

History

The first Carrefour store opened on 1 January 1958 in suburban Annecy near a crossroads (carrefour in French). The group was created by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey and grew into a chain from this first sales outlet. In 1999 it merged with Promodès, known as Continent, one of its major competitors in the French market.