Carrefour divests meal box branch

French hypermarket giant Carrefour wants to focus to its core business and has therefore decided to sell its meal box subsidiary, called Quitoque in its home market and Simply You in Belgium.

“Stand-alone business”

Carrefour says it has received a hefty – but as of yet, unspecified – offer from French investor Terence Capital. The offer was good enough for the French retailer to sell all its shares in Quitoque, the meal box company it had only bought in 2018, Carrefour confirmed to l’Informé. The supermarket group wants to refocus on its core business and says it now realises that meal boxes are a business in their own right.

The trade unions responded favourably to the transaction, although the group was not able to guarantee that all staff will keep their jobs. What the future holds for its Belgian branch, Simply You, remains to be seen. Quitoque is said to have accounted for 44.2 million euros in sales in 2021, on a net loss of 8 million.