Acquisition of Carrefour franchises in Alsace finalised

After almost 6 months of negotiations, Carrefour has finalised the acquisition of 128 Coop Alsace convenience stores. But not all of the shops will be Carrefour City or Express stores (probably less than half). ''The ''coopé'', as we call it here, really is a part of local heritage, the Alsatians are very attached to it'' says Gérard Dorey, Executive proximity Director at Carrefour.

Christine Duvillet, CEO of Coop Alsace, commends this project in a joint press release with Carrefour, where she explains that it ''saves the convenience store network''. Mr Dorey says they are happy to welcome new staff members and that they want to offer ''a commercial project and modern proximity network whilst maintaining shops' regional identities''.

The shops' 22,000 m2 commercial surface has a turnover of €65 million.

The classic leasing-management system will be used in these Carrefour convenience stores. Carrefour will be one of the biggest exhibitors at the Franchise Expo Paris, and Mr Dorey explains that ''the challenge today is finding candidates. Often ex-employees want to create their own company. We recruit about 170 people per year, of which two thirds go via leasing-management.''

In total, Carrefour Proximité has 3,400 stores (of which 1,700 are franchised) with a turnover of about €4 billion incl. tax.