Carrefour SA, the Paris-based international retailing giant, has announced that it will be spending nearly $3 billion in 2002 to open new stores, refurbish others and expand in Asia and Europe.
“I'm not pessimistic,” said chairman Daniel Bernard, in revealing his expectations for a 15 percent profit growth this year and a global economic rebound. “I don't see too many problems with consumption in Europe. People will continue to eat.”
Carrefour plans more than 400 store openings a year, including some 40 hypermarkets, 100 supermarkets and 300 discount stores.
Carrefour (French for “crossroads”) is the world's second-largest retailer (behind Wal-Mart), operating more than 9400 stores under some two dozen names, including hypermarkets (Carrefour), supermarkets (Champion), convenience stores (Shopi, MarchŽ Plus) and discount stores (Dia, Ed) in 27 countries throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia and the U.S. (where it owns almost 12 percent of PetsMart).