The French group Carrefour inaugurated this Tuesday 50 stores in Israel, where it is the first foreign distributor to settle, with the promise of lowering prices, particularly food, in a country where they are very high. “It is a very big day for Carrefour (…), we know that the expectations regarding Carrefour Israel are high, and we want to live up to these expectations,” Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard said during a ceremony. opening ceremony at the hypermarket located in Raanana, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Stating that he wanted to develop the range of kosher products that his group offers, Alexandre Bompard said that he wanted to “do it at affordable prices”. “We want to contribute in this way to the fight against the limitations that weigh on purchasing power,” he added. Fifty Carrefour stores officially open their doors in the country with a high concentration in the Tel Aviv area.
record inflation
The French distributor announced in March 2022 its imminent arrival in Israel, thanks to an alliance with the Israeli group Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary Yenot Bitan, which will allow it to open franchised stores in the country. According to a group statement, the first 50 branches have benefited from an investment of around 250 million shekels (or 62.6 million euros) and by the end of 2023, the Carrefour Israel chain should have between 80 and 100 branches.
In a video filmed in front of a Carrefour sign on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the group’s arrival as “great news for the citizens of Israel.” “The Israeli consumer will benefit from lower prices,” he said. The retail market in Israel is largely dominated by two large chains, Rami Levy and Shufersal, and this concentration, also present among Israeli agri-food groups, is commonly cited as one of the factors behind the high cost of food products.
From this point of view, the launch of Carrefour “will increase competition in the food industry,” said Uri Kilstein, general director of Carrefour Israel, in the group’s press release. In 2021, the magazine The Economist ranked Tel Aviv as the most expensive city in the world, ahead of Paris, Hong Kong and New York. The high cost of living was at the center of the Israeli legislative election campaign in November. It added to an unprecedented inflation for the country in more than a decade of 5.2% per year, according to figures published in April by Israel’s central bank.
14,300 stores
“We are very happy to finally have a crossroads in Israel,” Corinne, a French-Israeli woman who came to buy from Raanana, told AFP. “Finding French products is a pleasure. We hope that the prices are very attractive and that we can come and do our shopping regularly” here. For more than 60 years, Carrefour has displayed its banners in France and abroad, and is present in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, through a network of integrated and franchised stores or developed with partners.
In 2022, the group opened or acquired close to 1,500 stores. At the end of 2022, it had nearly 14,300 stores in more than 40 countries. Although the group is gradually withdrawing from the Asian market, it has big ambitions for Latin America. The integration of the Grupo Big chain in mid-2022 has reinforced Carrefour’s number one position in Brazil, which maintains its key markets in France and Spain. These three countries alone represent more than 80% of the group’s turnover.
Source: BFM TV
