The Carrefour group inaugurated an Atacadão store on Thursday June 20, 2024 in the Paris suburbs, in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a wholesale offering for individuals and professionals and the first establishment of this Brazilian brand on French soil.
Present at the inauguration, the CEO of the distribution group, Alexandre Bompard, praised the “unpublished format” of the store, and an offer of products “at prices that cannot be found in France”.
The store offers classic packaging but also professional formats, as well as batches at decreasing prices.
“We hope to achieve around 30% of our turnover” via professionals, who will benefit from prices different from those of the public, said the executive director in charge of the Atacadão project within Carrefour, Noël Prioux.
Successful brand in Brazil
The arrival in France of this successful brand in its country of origin, Brazil, was announced in November 2022 by Alexandre Bompard, on the horizon “back to school 2023”. But a first establishment, also in Seine-Saint-Denis, in Sevran, was the subject of an outcry.
Residents and local elected officials had protested against the disappearance of the town’s only traditional hypermarket, mainly stocked with discount brands, and Carrefour had finally set its sights on Aulnay-sous-Bois.
See “if the model is good”
Carrefour gives itself “between six and eight months to understand if the model is good”, without specifying objectives in terms of turnover, before considering the opening of other stores in this format. Noël Prioux, however, indicates that he has already “identified cities where a location could be interesting”.
Critiques
This implementation is not exempt from criticism of the social model, coming from the distributor’s union organizations. In September, the CFDT denounced the elimination of 96 positions. Carrefour managers indicated this Thursday, June 20, 2024 that all of these employees had been reclassified within the group.
