Carrefour Italia intends to open 95 stores this year, having reached a total of 1,500 outlets across Italy, including both directly-owned and franchised stores.
This follows the retailer's recent agreement with Apulia Distribuzione for the integration of 38 stores in Sicily under its banners, as well as the acquisition of 14 Unes franchised stores in Lombardy.
Carrefour Italia CEO Christophe Rabatel told daily Corriere della Sera that the French retailer reported 1.7% sales growth in the first half of 2021 compared to a year earlier, with turnover growth of 2.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021.
According to Rabatel, this positive trend continued into the first quarter of 2022, despite international tensions and inflation.
Customer Satisfaction
He also highlighted the fact that, in terms of the NPS customer satisfaction index, Carrefour Italia was the best performer across the entire Carrefour group for 15 consecutive months.
Key to the business' success has been the development model chosen for Italy that combines direct store management with franchising.
The total number of stores managed by the 400 partners reached 1,200, making Carrefour Italia the leading franchisor in the large-scale retail trade in Italy.
Store Openings
Last year, saw 60 new store openings while 42 stores were converted from directly-owned to franchised.
This year there will be 95 new store openings and 104 store conversions to franchised, with plans to continue at this level until 2025.
The group's growth strategy also focuses on digital innovation, with a 50% increase in investments in s0-called 4.0 technology, as part of a €3 billion plan between 2022 and 2026.
The aim, according to Rabatel, is to become a "digital retail company, with a data-centric, digital first approach", an approach that includes customer service, combining physical with online and internal management.
In this sense, partnerships have been signed with Meta, Google and UK-based customer data science company Dunnhumby.
Focus On Convenience
Carrefour is also betting on proximity and the 978 small neighbourhood outlets in its network account for 26% of its turnover. Such a strategy has enabled Carrefour to become the leader in this segment in the main Italian cities, including Milan, Turin, Rome, and Genoa, according to Rabatel.
With one eye on sustainability, Carrefour Italia is also aiming to have 100% of the packaging for its private label products to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, as well as to reduce food waste by 50% by the same date.
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© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
