E.Leclerc for the first time bigger than Carrefour in France

Sooner than
expected

CEO
Michel-Edouard Leclerc had predicted this a few weeks ago: “We will be bigger
than Carrefour in 2014 and not, as said earlier, somewhere in 2015.” He has
been proven right, but much sooner than expected. The study “Référenseigne
Flash” of Kantar WorldPanel showed that Leclerc had a market share of 19.9%
(+1.2% on a yearly basis) in the period from 22 April to 19 May, while
Carrefour stranded at 19.6% (-0.8%) in those same four weeks.

Over a
period of twelve months Carrefour still has the largest market share, but “it
is a clear signal that the gap between the groups E.Leclerc and Carrefour has
been melting away the past few months”, the authors of the study write in a
confidential document, which was handed to the distributors on Tuesday and which
could be looked into by French paper Le Figaro.

New joint
venture in Africa

In the
meantime Carrefour seems to be focussing more and more on Africa. The giant
from Boulogne-Billancourt signed a letter of intent at the end of May to start
a joint venture with African distributor CFAO. CFAO will have 55% of the
shares, the other 45% are for Carrefour.

The joint
venture would give Carrefour the chance to open stores in countries such as
Cameroon, both Congos, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. The first
Carrefour hypermarket has to open in 2015 in Abidjan, the largest city in Ivory
Coast.