Carrefour defy profits drop with Russian expansion

Carrefour may have suffered a loss in profits recently, but they know how to fight.

 

With new branches opening in Bulgaria and a recent new store in China, the chain is to press on by opening its first Russian store in Moscow in the second half of May in a long-anticipated move which will create 450 jobs.

 

A newly built mall, the Filion Trade Centre, will be the home of the Moscovite store The chain also hope to buy up the heavily indebted Russian group Seventh Continent, which has many stores in the city. This would dramatically increase Carrefour’s presence in the Russian capital.

 

Carrefour spokesman Alexei Shavenzov said that the chain “intends to serve the customers of the first hypermarket in Moscow in summer this year”.

 

Carrefour will take a significant 14,300 sq metres on two floors. It will neighbour Marks and Spencer and C&A - already present in Russia - in addition to Sportsmaster and the children’s store Detsky Mir.

 

“Everything is signed, [all tenants] should open” said Yulia Turukhia, Head of Marketing and Public Relations at Jones Lang LaSalle in Moscow.

 

Elsewhere, Carrefour plans to open another hypermarket in the southern city of Krasnodar, on the coast of Russia’s Black Sea.

 

But Carrefour has a formidable rival in the form of Auchan, a top French competitor who already opened their first branch in Moscow, and has more than thirty in Russia now. The group is expanding widely in the provinces and plans another six stores this year.