Carrefour plans more French "Carrefour" brand stores

French retail giant Carrefour said it was running a trial of new convenience stores in France under the "Carrefour Contact" brand and may launch an urban chain called "Carrefour City".

 

Carrefour, whose domestic like-for-like sales grew just 0.3 percent in 2007, reported a 3.2 percent rise in the third quarter of 2008 and said this was partly thanks to a simpler "multi-format, single-banner" strategy.

 

After issuing a profit warning in June, the group said in July it was accelerating the conversion of its underperforming Champion supermarket network to the Carrefour and Carrefour Market banners.

 

The group said that the 33 French stores already converted to the Carrefour Market brand had double-digit percentage sales growth in the third quarter, compared with a 1.7 percent increase across its supermarkets, excluding petrol.

 

Carrefour's convenience stores operate under brands such as Shopi, 8 a Huit and Proxi.