Carrefour, the second best retailer in the world

According to the study by Deloitte, Carrefour reaches the 2nd place ranking of the 250 largest retailers with a turnover of 112.6 billion dollars. The French group is still far outpaced by the U.S. giant Wal Mart (375 billion dollars in sales in 2007). Tesco is English (95 billion dollars in sales) who completes the podium.
Even if the top three is unchanged from 2008, the 2009 edition of the Champions distribution reveals many changes. Deloitte noted that discounters are benefiting from the economic crisis and lower consumer spending. Thus, the German group Schwarz (owner of Lidl stores) has won three seats compared to the previous edition and is the 7th ranking. His compatriot Aldi (10th) joined this year's top ten.
Another major trend: the rise of distribution groups from emerging countries. "Four of the six distributors have experienced the strongest growth in five years come from the emerging countries," says Deloitte citing the example of Russian specialist electronics Euroset. Between 2002 and 2007, the turnover of the retailer rose by 108.5%.

When food kills

In March 2008, the Paris Correctional Court dismissed the committee Salines de France, which continued for defamation Pierre Meneton. The latter had accused of minimizing the risks of excess salt on health. It is a rare victory, that of a whistle-blowers. Pierre Meneton, a researcher at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), was pursued by producers of salt. They accused him of having defamed by accusing minimize the risk of excess salt on health.
The remarks reported by the salt from France (FSC), a union where the majority of French producers of salt, dates back to 2006. Pierre Meneton had said in an interview with the monthly TOC, that "the lobby of salt producers and the food sector was very strong" and "lies” health professionals and the media."
The article, titled "Food Scandal: salt, defect, was accompanied by a box of salt containing the words" salt kills ", comparable to that found on cigarette packets. The journalist who wrote the article, Pierre Cattan, and the director of the publication of monthly, Arnaud Champremier were also prosecuted. Asserting that "the lobby of salt producers and the food sector was very strong" and "disinformation health professionals and the media" about the risks of excess salt on health is not defamatory. This was decided by the Paris Correctional Court, in a case between the Comité des Salines de France (FSC) to a researcher at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
The genesis of this case is instructive as to the means employed by a group of professionals to protect his business, even ignore health considerations proved. When the researchers from Inserm, Pierre Meneton, dared, in an article published in 2006 ( "Scandal food salt, defect"), drawing attention to the consequences of excess salt in food the union of French producers of salt drew artillery judiciary. And therefore lost.
It is not so much that the salt sprinkled on food that is in question, the salt hidden in all prepared foods manufactured or processed by the food industry.
Why so much salt? Because it is a good conservative, a flavor enhancer, it improves the taste and appearance of food. It is, therefore, pervasive in our food. Even where, apparently, it has nothing to do chocolate, biscuits, yoghurt and dairy desserts, soft drinks and jars ... baby.

According to a survey measuring the dietary intake of sodium, bread, crackers, sausages, soups, cheese, dishes, pizzas, quiches and savory pastries, the pastries, condiments and sauces and pastries are top ten "vectors of salt with more than 80% of daily intake.
The results show an average of between 8 and 10 grams per day, which corresponds closely to the standards set by the World Health Organization but is still under the U.S. medical journal New England Journal of Medicine recommends that not exceed 6 grams per day (one teaspoon).

AFSSA (French agency for food safety), does not rule in the short term for a general reduction of salt consumption, the evidence that high intakes of sodium are harmful to healthy individuals n has not been made.
A high intake of salt can be harmful for hypertensive, obese and heart failure.
Lack of scientific certainty on the optimal consumption of salt, public campaigns about the dangers of salt are not on the agenda. Other public health issues such as tobacco, alcohol and obesity are much more worrying.
He remains in France, seven million people suffer from hypertension (voltage above 14 / 9) that taking drugs is not sufficient in itself to deal with.
Too much salt is affecting not only blood pressure. It also aggravate osteoporosis, increase the risk of stomach cancer and could even affect the cardiovascular system.
Although lacking certainty, the general interest is to eat less salt. The difficulty in putting this principle into practice from what we have no exact knowledge of the salt content of food trade, labeling information only on the presence of salt, not quantity.
Therefore, the common sense to consume less of foods high in salt, to give preference for fresh products, manufactured at home and have the main light to salt food.

The Classification of emerging countries in terms of retailing potential

Every Year, the management consulting firm AT Kearney publishes its GRDI (Global Retail Development Index) classification which evaluates the attractiveness of emerging countries according to 4 criteria :
o Country Risk
o Market attractiveness
o Market Saturation
o Time Pressure

This is the top-10 of GRDI classification





For the first time, it is Vietnam which occupies the first place of this classification in front of India, Russia and China. That can be surprising to find Vietnam in front of these 3 large countries but the country represents a real opportunity for the world distributors since the deregulation of the retailing sector.

Development of mass market in Morocco

Moroccan trade structure is still largely dominated by traditional business, but the supermarkets gradually gaining market share. Absent some ten years, they now represent 10% of retail. Mass market in Morocco appears as a growth area and the number of outlets increasing at a sustained pace.
The supermarket chain Label'Vie, with 18 large stores, a subsidiary of Best Financial Holding, will open three new hypermarkets in Morocco. These openings refer to the strategic plan for the period 2008-2011, which provides for the number of stores to 40. In 2007, several shareholders of the chain had defected from the hedge fund and Cyrus Capital banker Othman Benjelloun, who create the chain of supermarkets Hanouty.
Label'Vie is number two in Morocco behind the ONA which operated until 2007 with Auchan hypermarkets Marjane (17 stores) and supermarkets Acima (25 stores). In third place comes Assalam Aswak who has 7 hypermarkets, but the opening will bring the number to 15 by 2012, with an average of the opening of 2 stores per year.
Makro, a representative of the German Metro, which is focus on cash-and-carry with eight stores. The hard-discounters BIM (Turkey) and Lidl (Germany) are followers, like Carrefour, which seeks Moroccan partners.

reliable assessment classification signs distribution

In April 2008, at the World Retail Congress held Barcelona, Interbrand revealed its classification labels of the most successful at European level. Carrefour ranks 2nd place and in the first place great brands of food distribution.

Below the rank of Interbrand 'Europe's Top Performing Retail Brands 2008 "

1 H&M Sweden
2 Carrefour France
3 Ikea Sweden
4 Tesco UK
5 M&S UK
6 Zara Spain
7 Aldi Germany
8 Boots UK
9 El Corte Inglés Spain
10 Auchan France
11 ASDA UK
12 MediaMarkt Germany
13 Lidl Germany
14 Edeka Germany
15 C&A Netherlands
16 Sephora France
17 The Body Shop UK
18 Argos UK
19 Mango Spain
20 Sainsbury’s UK
21 Kaufland Germany
22 Mercadona Spain
23 FNAC France
24 Rewe Germany
25 Carphone Warehouse UK

More information is available on http://www.lesechos.fr/medias/2008/0411//300256526.pdf

We await the rankings in 2009 to see if there was a crisis symptom ...

Woolworths, The end of a giant english retailer

For two days, we could see on the streets of Brixton, one of south London, a display of a countdown indicating: "More than two days," 70% discount "," All must disappear. "

Indeed, tonight Woolworths will end his reign. This great institution of the British distribution for over a century has marked the commercial landscape of the United Kingdom is today in total liquidation . More than 800 stores will close their doors forever this evening and 30 000 jobs will disappear.

This is not a surprise, already in 2008, the ravages of the crisis had with more than twenty-nine retail chains into administration. This concern continues with the announcement of the bad result of Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Home Retail Group and Next; bankruptcy of dozens of so-called moderate (approximately 200 stores) in January.

Those who have limited the damage are the discount chains such as Albi, Lidl and Primark increasing their market share by attracting middle-class now.

As elsewhere, the only winners of this crisis are sales distributors via the Internet continues to rise.

The advisory group Deloitte, administrator, is always looking to sell, in each case, some of the shops whose location could interest other labels as Sainsbury's, Asda, Tesco.

Russia : Next step of confrontations between the leaders of retail industry

Russia is one of the emergent countries in the distribution sector. Indeed, the turnover of the sector was already of 200 billion dollars in 2004 and could reach 500 billion dollars in 2010. This market attracts more and more the world leaders such as Carrefour and Wal-Mart.

Moreover, the local actors are still very present in this sector either via small shops of districts, or via supermarkets and other hypermarkets. The German distributor Metro is the only one among the 10 larger world distributors to be established in Russia. Currently, Wal-Mart and Carrefour are not yet present in Russia but it would seem that the two giants are decided to attack this market in a near future.
Indeed, Carrefour should open during 2009 its first hypermarket in Russia in a shopping mall of Krasnodar (southern of the country). An agreement with the governor of Krasnodar gives a report on an investment of Carrefour of 100 million dollars over 5 years to open several hypermarkets, supermarkets and other structures in the area of Krasnodar. Carrefour is looking also on russian distributors in order to purchase shares and to be more present on the market. One of them is Lenta. Wal-Mart is also in race in order to take the control of the russian distributor Lenta.

If Carrefour manages to leapfrog Wal-Mart on this point, the french multinational could finally restore its former glory after several failures such as India. To the contrary, if Wal-Mart wins this battle, the American giant will enter easily the Russian market.