Carrefour shops at Casino by bringing together 92 Puig franchise stores [Exclusif]

A nice blow for Carrefour. By taking around a hundred stores (exactly 92) from one of Casino's main franchisees, the number two food retailer offers a significant growth accelerator to its convenience branch, the group's most dynamic (+0.5% cumulative turnover growth over the first nine months of the year compared to -4.3% for hypermarkets and -1.3% for supermarkets on a comparable basis excluding gasoline). The 92 stores belonging to Puig, a family group founded in 1920, are all located in Occitanie.

The changeover will take place from 1^is February 2025: the Petit Casino, Vival and Spar will display the Carrefour City (for 12 stores), Carrefour Proxi (10 stores) brands and the rest, i.e. 70 stores, the Carrefour Express brand, Carrefour's concept of urban proximity. Carrefour will also supply these points of sale via its 63 warehouses. “This ten-year partnership is the result of a reciprocal, determined and ambitious choice for our two companies”comments Benoit Soury, executive director of Carrefour Proximité. « We are proud to write this new page in our history with Carrefour », abounds Guillaume Puig, president of Puig & Fils.

A new kind of partnership for Carrefour and a hard blow for Casino

Carrefour, which holds 70% of the convenience store in France and 36% market share, far ahead of Casino (21% convenience market share according to Kantar Worldpanel at the end of October 2024), has already had a record year with these small formats and displays 155 store openings on the clock for the year 2024. The contribution of 92 stores at once, which represent 70 million euros in turnover in annual rate and employ 500 employees, allows it to take an additional step forward in the Occitanie region. The operating mode will also be different, Benoit Soury explains to LSA. “ The Puig group will play the role of facilitator of the development of Carrefour Express in the Occitanie region. » Until now, Carrefour teams fulfilled this role in each region for the 1000 Carrefour Express, the 1100 City and the 750 Carrefour Contact, all franchisees, dedicated to rural areas. Tomorrow, at least in Occitanie, the group based in Frontignan, in Hérault, which also has a wholesaler function, will be responsible for accelerating the development of Carrefour, especially Express.

As for Casino, this is the first major defection for the group in its new configuration. And this, while Philippe Palazzi, general managermakes it a strategic axis, with its 5,600 points of sale. “ The proximity will continue to develop. It corresponds to a real demand from society », he explained at the last forum organized by LSA on the subject last November. If the time is no longer for expansion at all costs at Casino, the new team is working to re-motivate the franchisees, after several months of difficulties. “ It was necessary to overhaul the entire logistics plan during the summertold us recently Magali Daubinet-Salen, general director of Distribution Casino France (DCF). Today, we need to re-board the franchisees. » Among them, some operate more than a hundred stores. This is the case of Codis Aquitaine in the southwest, of Codisud in the Montpellier region, but also of Sherpa. The latter has re-signed with Casino for ten years, but with a one-year trial period which ends next spring…