French Retail Giant Carrefour To Shut Shop In India
International Business Times
Published Jul 08, 2014 02:28AM ET
French Retail Giant Carrefour To Shut Shop In India
By Avaneesh Pandey - Carrefour (PARIS:CARR), France’s largest, and the world’s second-largest retailer, by sales, has announced its plan to exit the Indian market.
In a statement issued Monday, the French retailer, which has been operating five “cash and carry” wholesale stores in India since 2010, said that it would begin shutting its stores from the end of September.
"Until that time, the company will continue to be fully engaged with all its employees, suppliers, partners and customers," the company said, in the statement.
Since March, Carrefour has been in talks with Indian companies and retailers over the sale of its Indian assets. The company is exiting India after it failed to reach an agreement over a joint venture with Sunil Mittal's Bharti group, which had earlier partnered with Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) in India.
Franck Kenner, a spokesperson at Carrefour's India unit, declined to comment on whether it was planning to sell any of its stores to rivals, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Carrefour’s exit from India is being seen as a part of CEO Georges Plassat’s three-year revival plan.
In August 2012, shortly after taking over as CEO, Plassat had called for “vigilant” cost control across the business. The company has since exited underperforming markets, including Singapore, Malaysia and Greece in order to focus on key markets in Europe, China and Brazil.
The company's five stores in India reported losses of $17 million in 2012, Business Standard reported Tuesday.
Although India opened up its $500 billion retail sector to foreign direct investment, or FDI, in multi-brand retail in 2012, laws requiring mandatory local sourcing and the freedom given to each state to decide on the entry of global chains have discouraged many companies from investing in the country.
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, had last year shelved its plans to open a retail store in the country. Following the Indian government’s decision to allow foreign companies to own a 51 percent stake in the multi-brand retail segment, only British supermarket operator Tesco (LONDON:TSCO) has announced plans to open stores in the country.
Get The News You Want
Written By: International Business Times
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.