Carrefour is a company which belongs to the distribution sector, the mode of self-service marketing aimed at achieving the economies of scale through large retail space.
Since its birth, the retail sector has developed a regime of extensive growth and despite being young; it is now confronted with the depletion of endogenous factors of growth regime. Distributors are then considered the maintenance strategies of the growth of which are global in nature.
France is a country with a number of European and global players including Carrefour, which since its merger with Promodes, is the leader and as the second largest worldwide (in terms of sales) sector and European leader.
Carrefour was founded in 1963 by Marcel Fournier and Denis Defforey with the opening of the first hypermarket in France. But its innovative character is not limited to this initiative only. Indeed, it has launched the wave in France Trademark distributors (MDD), developed a brand from discount stores and, above all, took root abroad before its competitors. The history of Crossroads presents a distributor which is then strategically dynamic.
For these reasons it seemed interesting to us to choose this company as a parallel to the empirical study of the trans-nationalization of a company.
To study the phenomenon of internationalization, while remaining in a sector specific issue, we will ask to what extent the internationalization for Carrefour is a response to the depletion regime of extensive growth.
We will assess in part the importance of the seat of the Carrefour Group International in part because of its superstore concept and then look at the strategies by which Carrefour continues its extensive growth in foreign markets.
For the last thirty years, major retail groups exploiting different selling formats have been formed in Europe and North America. Although most of these companies are concentrated in the United States, the European groups remain more internationalized.
Think of the store as a product, that is to say that the product is any store selling space from which one can tie the act of purchasing the final consumer of a product or service. We can distinguish several forms of distribution (several product concepts store) which are defined by characteristics such as the outlet store size, assortment, trade policy, the location, etc.
Tags: Carrefour, origin of Carrefour, international strategy adopted by Carrefour
[...] Website: Carrefour.com. As opposed to intensive growth, extensive growth is growth for which there is a strict proportionality between economic activity and amount of labor or capital used. Cf Annex 1 It concerns the interface between the merchant and the consumer, the consumer visible part of the distribution system, as opposed to the network for the organization's internal distribution system. Cf Annex 2 Birth of the product (retail concept for the area), growth, maturity and decline. Cf Annex 3 Cf Annex 4 Asset competitive. [...]
[...] The emphasis on internationalization can be interpreted as an attempt to prolong the extensive growth. It is in this respect striking that in the internationalization of French groups, the distribution has shifted from the developed countries to countries lagging behind in terms of commercial development: Southern Europe, South America, Eastern Europe, emerging Asia . The few attempts to penetrate more mature markets have generally been unsuccessful. The countries covered by Carrefour have the obvious advantage of being rapidly growing markets, where the flexibility of the regulatory framework and the still important traditional trade facilitate the opening of outlets. [...]
[...] In 1969, Carrefour launched its international expansion by opening its first store abroad (Belgium). After only thirty years, Carrefour merged with Promodes (1999) to form the leading European distribution network (second globally behind the U.S. group Wal-Mart). APPENDIX Different forms of retail - The hypermarket, offering a wide range of food and non food products at very attractive prices, there is an average of nearly 80,000 references. The surface of these stores varies from 5000 m² to over 20,000 m², and their catchment area is very wide. [...]
[...] We did not want a comprehensive review of these rules but the fact remains that they affect the strategic behavior of firms. Indeed, the Raffarin law of 5 July 1996 requiring authorization in any proposed sales area exceeding 300m ² has evidently accelerated the international growth of the Carrefour Group. [...]
[...] II-Strategies of international extension[6] as part of the extensive growth Internationalization has now emerged as the strategic priority of the leading European distributor. Convincing illustration: Carrefour realizes about half of its turnover abroad It is true that when growth prospects are proving limited in the domestic market, it is interesting to push the boundaries in geographic space. Looking for specific advantages in the area of the distribution In the distribution sector and for Carrefour, firms will seek specific benefits transferable abroad that constitute a competitive advantage (because they generate lower costs) allowing them to remain competitive in foreign markets. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
