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Supermarket chain Carrefour unveils ambitious new plans for Morocco

By our News Team | 2023

French retailer and its local Moroccan partner plan to open franchised neighbourhood stores across the North African country.

French-based supermarket giant Carrefour is set to expand its footprint in Morocco and, together with its local partner, has unveiled a new franchise programme that will grow the national footprint of smaller convenience stores under the Carrefour Express brand.

The chain already has a well-established presence in the North African country through its franchise partner, Label’Vie, and the Carrefour Express concept of neighbourhood stores was launched in 2021.

Carrefour wants to expand its already well-established presence in Morocco. Photo courtesy of Label’Vie

It currently has a small footprint in the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier and Marrakech, but the aim is to use the franchise model to grow the footprint significantly. If successful, Carrefour Express will compete directly with BIM, a Turkish discounter that has a Moroccan network of more than 600 neighbourhood stores.

“The brand aims to become the benchmark neighbourhood store for daily shopping for urban customers, with a range of dedicated services and local offers,” the website Morocco Latest News reports, calling it an “unprecedented initiative at the national level”.

Franchises offered in several partnership formulas

A Carrefour Express franchise programme is being offered in several partnership formulas depending on the applicant’s status – such as auto-entrepreneur, investor, or owner-manager. It will be flexible to adapt to the different configurations of candidate franchisees.

Says Franchise Director, Mehdi Mansour: “It’s a win-win relationship between a brand with the reputation and know-how established with Carrefour stores, and future candidates wishing to invest in food distribution.

“The expansion of the network through our franchise programme allows us, on the one hand, to open new stores and therefore be even closer to our customers. And, on the other hand, to support entrepreneurs wishing to invest in food distribution by relying on a leading group.”

Carrefour is well known in many African markets and has been in Morocco since 2009, in partnership with local retail operator Label’Vie.

The French chain is one of the world’s largest retailers and operates more than 12,000 hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores in over 30 countries.

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