French retailer Carrefour plans to open four of its smaller Express stores in the UAE within the next three months, the general manager for the region said Sunday.
The world’s second-largest retailer will increase and rebrand its portfolio of smaller Carrefour Express stores in the Gulf state from 16 to 20 as it seeks to broaden its customer base.
“We will be opening four new stores between now and the end of September,” Rose Carbajo, general manager for Carrefour UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait told Arabian Business.
“They will all be under the brand Carrefour Market, but the sizes will be variable.”
The hypermarket chain, which operates in the Gulf under a franchise deal with UAE conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim Holdings, plans to rebrand its ‘Express’ stores to Carrefour Market.
The name aims to shift perception of the outlets from basic convenience stores to well-stocked grocers with a range of fresh ingredients such as bread baked in-store, butchers and fishmongers.
“We want to push the amount of fresh food in our shops, rather than just being another grocery in the market,” said Carbajo. “Changing our name will help us to be more aligned with other fresh food specialists rather than just a quick stop grocery.”
Carrefour plans to roll out the rebrand during June and July. Under the scheme, stores will also switch their focus to increase their stock of fresh produce over basic grocery items.
MAF Holdings said it June it plans to open eight Carrefour supermarkets in Egypt and its first outlet in Iraq in a bid to grow its footprint in the Middle East.
Carrefour, one of France’s largest export brands, has seen sales tumble in its core home market under competition from rival retailers E Leclerc and Auchan.
The company issued a profit warning in June and said first-half results would be below expectations.
France accounts for 40% of Carrefour’s sales and is under pressure as rivals keep prices low to gain market share.
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