“Insufficient” growth in Brazil and China
In his first interview with the Financial Times
since he started as CEO of Carrefour, Plassat described the growth of Carrefour
in Brazil and China as “insufficient”. The sales of Carrefour in Latin-America
(including Argentina) rose by 14%, but they went down 10% in Asia. The CEO did
however add the following: “We are working on a strategy. These are big
countries, and there are lots of possibilities, but I hope the plan will be
ready by the beginning of next year.”
Since Plassat became CEO the company sold its
activities in Indonesia, Columbia and Malaysia. This way, the company made about 2.8
billion euro; money it can use to get France, still the biggest market for
Carrefour, back on track and to profit from the massive growth of
the middle class in Brazil and China.
With Migros in Turkey?
In the same interview with the Financial Times
George Plassat shone his light on the difficult situation in Turkey. A year ago business
partner Sabancı, who have a joint venture with Carrefour in Turkey, announced it was not pleased with the performance of Carrefour.
According to Plassat news is to be expected
about that situation within a few weeks. The Frenchmen confirmed the option to merge with Migros, a Swiss retailer owned by investment fund BC Partners in
Turkey is on the table.
