FRANCE: Carrefour kills off Continent

French group Carrefour, the world's second largest retailer since last year's merger with compatriot Promodès, has renamed the remaining supermarkets and hypermarkets under the Continent fascia, in a bid to strengthen the Carrefour brand. Eight of the Continent hypermarkets, which were converted to the Carrefour fascia in a first wave of renaming in May, reported sales growth between 8% and 10% higher than that achieved by across the division, said Jean-Pierre Gillot, director of Carrefour's hypermarket activities.This latest stage in the merger of Carrefour with Promodès was competed to schedule, exactly one year after the deal was first announced.