Carrefour is set to put any further expansion in Greece on hold amid the turbulent economic conditions in the country.
The French retailer’s Carrefour Marinopoulos venture, which the largest retailer in Greece, has decided to scale back its plans in Greece over the next two years.
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Carrefour had planned to convert 14 of its local outlets to its new Carrefour Planet hypermarket chain. However, it will now only change ten stores to the banner.
The retailer has also stated that it will not remodel any outlets. It had planned to make changes to 23 stores by 2013.
Carrefour’s like-for-like sales in Greece, excluding fuel, fell 6.4% in the second quarter of 2011 due to weak consumption. A spokesman said today (9 September) that Greece was a “challenging market due to [the] economic crisis.”
On Wednesday, Belgium-based retailer Delhaize told just-food that it was looking to expand its operations in Greece, where it owns the Alfa-Beta chain.
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By GlobalDataThe Carrefour spokesman said the company would not comment on Delhaize’s plans but said: “Carrefour Marinopolous remains the country’s biggest retail chain both in terms of stores, turnover and market share.”
Last week, Carrefour reported a first-half loss and cut its forecast for annual profits after half-year earnings were hit by a poor domestic performance and a number of one-off items.
