Carrefour in Kazakhstan

On 11 February 2016, Carrefour's franchise partner, the Majid Al Futtaim Group, opened the first Carrefour Hypermarket in Kazakhstan, in Almaty city, the country's economic capital.

The new hypermarket was established in Almaty’s Grand Park Mall and has a sales area of 8000 m². It sells more than 30,000 items, including fresh produce and groceries, home appliances, sporting goods and leisure equipment, and textile products. At the same building, there are additional 400 shops, and for convenience of visitors 1200 parking lots are available. The new Carrefour Grand Park store has provided employment to more than 450 people. It is expected to create additional 150 direct and indirect jobs in Almaty, including 50 local management positions.

Carrefour plans further expansion of the stores. Thus, in the future to open five hypermarkets in Almaty and at least 4 in Astana. In each of them will work nearly 500 employees. Like in other countries, the company is working with more than 500 local manufacturers, farmers and producers from Almaty, and 20 suppliers from other cities.

The experts says that the market in Kazakhstan is quite small, and there is no strong competition. The market is not fully occupied with such stores. Moreover, it operates in a ‘cash and carry’ format, while Carrefour operates in a different format.

However, since Carrefour has different format of stores, it can implement this strategy here, considering the features of domestic market, such as small population and huge territory.

Eric Legros, CEO, Majid Al Futtaim Retail, said: "The opening of our first outlet in Kazakhstan marks a major milestone for Majid Al Futtaim as we mark another milestone in our regional growth. Kazakhstan is a significant long-term growth market for us, and the new Carrefour Grand Park marks the beginning of a significant KZT 5 billion investment program that will deliver two additional projects in Almaty and Astana." The main goal is to establish itself in emerging...