Carrefour in Bulgaria

Résumé du document

Carrefour is an international supermarket group headquartered in France with a global network of supermarkets. It is the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and sales figures. Carrefour operates mainly in the European Union, Brazil and Argentina, but also has shops in North Africa and Asia. The group was created by Marcel Fournier and Louis Defforey and grew into a chain from its first sales outlet. The first Carrefour store opened on June 3, 1957, in suburban Annecy. The Carrefour group pioneered the concept of a hypermarket, which are a large supermarket and a department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket in 1962 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France. Carrefour has opened its first hypermarket outside France in 1969 in Belgium. In 1999 it merged with Promodès, one of its major competitors in the French and European market and was ranked first in Europe and second in the world. As of 2005, it was the biggest retailer in Europe and the second largest worldwide with a consolidated sales of £ 62,409 billion, £ 186 billion of market consolidation and 436 000 employees.

Extraits

[...] Carrefour will not sell something that is not to their satisfaction. ( Threat of Substitute: Many of Carrefour's competitors have tried to mimic Carrefour's unique and successful ways of doing business but failed. Carrefour has an excellent customer service that is unique to their chain. Everything possible is done to ensure that shopping at Carrefour will be a friendly experience. Marcel Fournier, founder of Carrefour, established 3 Basic Beliefs, “respect for the individual, service to the customer, and strive for excellence”. Carrefour takes these 3 Basic Beliefs very seriously. [...]

[...] Therefore, the competition is low in Bulgaria and a big group like Carrefour could become easily the leader there. ( Conclusion ( FMS to Enter in Bulgaria : FDI Bulgaria is an attractive country for FDI but hosts a few of global cross-border M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity. As foreign buyers and Bulgarian sellers become more comfortable with the acquisition process, the ratio of foreign M&A activity to total FDI should increase substantially over the next five years. Some companies may choose to do so by acquiring existing local trading and distribution firms in relevant product areas. [...]

[...] Economic forecasts for 2005 and 2006 predict continued growth in the Bulgarian economy. The annual year-on-year GDP growth for 2005 and 2006 is expected to total and respectively. Industrial output for 2005 is forecast to rise by year-on-year, and for 2006 by year-on- year. Unemployment for 2005 is projected at and for 2006 at under 10%. As of 2006 the GDP structure is: agriculture- 8.0 industry-26,1%; services- PEST Analysis Definition of the PEST Analysis PEST analysis stands for "Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis" and describes a framework of macroenvironmental factors used in environmental scanning. [...]

[...] As cited above, FDI has the potential to generate employment, raise productivity, transfer skills and technology, enhance exports and contribute to the long-term economic development of an emerging country. Therefore, Bulgaria became part of the WTO which permit its opening to the world economy and the attraction of a superior amount of FDI from developed countries. To conclude we can say that Carrefour should be interested by setting up in Bulgaria. The market will become one of the most important in Eastern Europe in the future. [...]

[...] Carrefour has product differentiation with strong brand identification and customer loyalty. Carrefour also has access to distribution channels with secure distribution for their products. Technology plays an important role in helping Carrefour stay customer focused. There are high barriers of entry for companies aspiring to come into the retail industry because of the resources that Carrefour possesses. ( Competitive Rivalry: There is no intensity of rivalry among Carrefour and its competitors in the retail industry because Carrefour excels in this sector. No competitor can beat Carrefour's price philosophy. [...]