The French retailer Carrefour is preparing to launch its hard discount cash&carry Atacadão format in Europe in the coming period, writes Esmmagazine.com.
The format is already available in the markets of Brazil and Morocco. Recently, Alexandre Bompard, Chairman of the Carrefour Group, confirmed plans to test the new format in France from next autumn.
According to the French press, the first Atacadão store would open in Seine-Saint-Denis, where a Carrefour hypermarket will be converted into the new format imported from Brazil.
Launched on the Brazilian market in 1962 by Alcides Parizotto, Atacadão was acquired by Carrefour in 2007 for 825 million euros. Currently, 283 physical stores and one online store in 170 cities operate in Brazil under this format, with approximately 60,000 employees, and this format generates approximately 50% of Carrefour’s sales in Brazil. In Morocco Atacadão has three stores, in Tangier, Fez and Oujda.
Promoting itself as being on the border between a hypermarket and a wholesaler, Atacadão offers products at a price 10-15% lower than standard stores. Its strategy is not based on promotions, but rather low prices throughout the year. The product offer is limited and amounts to around 10,000 food and non-food items, especially private brands.
Read also: What are the strategic directions Carrefour is targeting for transformation in the next 4 years
Carrefour intends to allocate a budget of approximately 150 million euros for the expansion of the Atacadão format, with the target of reaching a number of 470 stores in Brazil.
Carrefour Romania reported a turnover of 672 million euros for the third quarter of this year, up 8.8% in comparable terms compared to the same period of the previous year. Thus, the local market records, once again, the second highest growth at European level, with a stable and solid growth trend of 8.8% in comparable terms, in a context of high inflation.
