France’s Carrefour Group has halted its plan of opening the first store of Brazilian cash-and-carry brand Atacadão in Greater Paris, according to media reports.
This decision follows a petition by the mayor of Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis), a town of 50,000 inhabitants 18 km from Paris, against the rebranding of the existing Carrefour hypermarket as Atacadão.
Mayor Stéphane Blanchet defined the choice as ‘disastrous’, claiming the ‘low-cost project degrades the commercial offer of Sevran and threatens the sustainable, ecological and solidarity-based city project for which we have worked hard for several years.’
The idea of taking the Brazilian brand to Europe was one of the 2023 goals presented by the group's global CEO, Alexandre Bompard.
Atacadão
Carrefour acquired the Atacadão banner in Brazil for US$ 1.1 billion in 2007 and the cash-and-carry format already accounts for 70% of the group's revenues in Brazil.
The reasoning was that this type of store, which sells food in larger quantities and at big discounts, would be ideal at a time when Europe is suffering from inflation and a substantial increase in the cost of living.
The plan was to offer up to 10,000 SKUs in the Atacadão stores, compared to up to 60,000 in hypermarkets, at very low prices.
Now, after Sevran's negative reaction, Carrefour has backed down on its original plans and has commenced the search for a location for the first Atacadão store in France.
"We are still studying different sites for the opening of the first Atacadão store in France, according to the schedule we have set ourselves. The conditions are not met for this to be done in Sevran, but we are moving forward on several other tracks, in conjunction with the municipalities concerned," a Carrefour spokesperson told the AFP news agency, according to a report in the publication, Capital.
Read More: Carrefour To Launch Atacadão Format In Europe
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
