Management Strategy in Carrefour

1. Introduction

Retailing is one of the largest industries in the world. If we analyze its activities we see that retailers are more connected with the consumer than the producer. Retailing is also an industry that is continuously changing. At first retailers began with chains that developed into regionally groups and after that they became nationally and internationally. Nowadays many retails have a very large number of employees, a massive turnover and they developed their stores networks after the customers' needs.

Retailing remains one of the most profitable activities in an economy based in consuming. That's why the retail chains are in a continuous expansion. This can be observed from the growth of the number of stores: from 234 units in 2007 to 326 units in 2008.

In the world, in 2009, in the top of the retailers, there could have been found: Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Auchan, IKEA, Best Buy, Home Depot, etc. In Romania the top is comprised by: Metro, Carrefour, Selgros, Cora, Billa, Auchan, Real, etc. This project is concentrated on the activities and strategies of Carrefour.

2. Carrefour in the world

Carrefour is one of the biggest retailers in the world, occupying the second place, after Wall-Mart. It can be found in 30 countries, and it has a number of approximately 456.000 employees. Carrefour started in France in 1959, and today it has divisions and subsidiaries in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

The group has four types of stores: hypermarkets, supermarkets, discount stores and neighborhood stores. Carrefour has a total of 15000 stores that are operated in its one name or in franchising.

In every country in which Carrefour has stores, the group gets involved in the local economic development. In general they are interested in the human relationship, that's why they concentrate in the way the recruitment and training of personnel. In all the countries that they operate they occupy the ninth place in the top of employers. They also try to help the local suppliers, so almost 85% of their products are from local sources.

3. Carrefour in Romania

The first Carrefour store, appeared in Romania in 2001, in Bucharest. In 2006, in the seven stores that they have, they sold products in a total value of 608.9 million Euros. In December 2007 the group has had ten hypermarkets in Romania, five in Bucharest and the rest in Ploiesti, Brasov, Braila, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, and Pitesti.

In 2007 Carrefour bought the supermarket chain Artima, for 55 million Euros, to consolidate its place on the market.

Today the group operates in Romania a chain of 22 Carrefour hypermarkets and 21 Carrefour Express supermarkets.

4. Products and Services

4.1. Products

Carrefour sells a diverse range of products like: electronics, clothes, books, toys, home appliance, furniture, tableware, sports equipment, cosmetics, food, drinks, etc. The group sells international brands in its stores but also its own brands: No.1, Tex, Bluesky and Carrefour brand. These brands have a value of 60 million Euros.

The last brand that was launched is Carrefour, and in the stores entered in 2009. Carrefour has chosen this moment to launch its own product range because now is a positive economic environment for cheaper products and the number of hypermarkets and supermarkets is sufficient to support product distribution. For the first phase the retailer is selling a range of 1200 products, followed in the next two years to reach to 3500 to 4000 products. Carrefour brand products represent approximately 6% of sales retailer now. Of the 1,200 products, 800 are food products that are manufactured almost entirely in Romania. Among food producers selected we can find European Drinks, Orkla Foods Romania, and Danone. The selling price of products manufactured under private label Carrefour will be on average 20% lower than the other products sold by the French retailer in Romania.

4.2. Services

Regarding services, Carrefour offers financial services, also traveling services, photo services, fast food, and in Bucharest there is also a Carrefour gas station.

In the financial area the group offers a Carrefour card and also they give credits for personal needs, and credits for home goods, insurance, and they also have a service for sending money to people you know in the country or abroad. These services are made in partnership with BRD Group Societe Generale.

The card is called Carrefour MasterCard, and it can be used as a credit card. The owner of this card can take a credit of a maximum amount of 20,000 lei, with