Carrefour eyes acquisitions to accelerate India expansion

New Delhi: French supermarket major Carrefour is weighing acquisitions of struggling food retailers in India as it seeks to build scale much faster than opening stores one by one after re-entering a market it abandoned more than a decade ago, a top executive said.

While the retailer has announced a target of about 50 stores in India over the next three years through its partnership with Apparel Group, the expansion “could go much faster than that, depending on the result, which is, so far, very promising for the store opened two weeks ago,” Patrick Lasfargues, executive director for international partnerships at Carrefour, told ET.

Acquiring existing food retailers with established locations and customers could accelerate that expansion, Lasfargues said. “It could be an ailing company, which is better, because we get a good price.”


The approach is a sharp departure from Carrefour’s earlier India strategy, when it entered the market through a cash-and-carry operation without a local partner and exited within five years in 2014.

Lasfargues said the experience showed the company how long it could take to understand the market.

It has since overhauled its international strategy. “Since 2018, we said, all countries franchise. If you don’t find the right partner, we don’t go,” Lasfargues said.

Carrefour has now entered through a franchise agreement with Dubai-based Apparel Group, which sells brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Charles & Keith, Aldo, and Bath & Body Works in India.

Carrefour is also abandoning the giant hypermarket model that once defined its international expansion and focusing on pricing.

Lasfargues said he was struck by discounts of 30% to 50% from maximum retail prices, with even deeper promotions in non-food. “Like, this is very aggressive,” he said. “So, it is true that it’s a very price-sensitive market.”

He said the company is making sure that it can compete on the price and discounts. “This is key,” he added, noting that the company has “a strong competition doing a good job.”

Carrefour has rebuilt its assortment specifically for India rather than transplanting its global model. “We started with a white sheet of paper,” Lasfargues said.

Carrefour is also abandoning the giant hypermarket model that once defined its international expansion. In India, it is testing smaller stores and expects the most productive format to be between 15,000 and 25,000 square feet.

“We will never go to large hypermarkets,” Lasfargues said. “I don’t think we will go to 10 or 12,000 square metres. This might be too big. Because you need to have some productivity.”

Its next store will be about 10,000 square feet, roughly one-third the size of its first outlet in Greater Noida.

That flexibility may be necessary in a market where established supermarket chains are battling the rapid rise of quick-commerce platforms.

Carrefour is initially resisting a rush into online grocery despite its experience in markets such as Saudi Arabia.

“We decided not to do it now, because we want the customers to have a real customer experience,” Lasfargues said. “We will not rush for that, because we know that rushing costs for profitability, and you don’t know the customer too much.”

The retailer also sees India as a potential sourcing base for its global operations. Current sourcing is limited, but Carrefour plans to increase purchases through Apparel Group, including private-label products such as chocolates, spices and rice.

“If anything, that can help Made in India go global, (so) why not?” Lasfargues said.

For now, though, he wouldn’t put a number on sourcing from India. Nor would he estimate the eventual size of its Indian retail business, which will partly depend on acquisitions.

But Lasfargues said Carrefour isn’t returning simply to build a small store network. “We’re not coming here just to do 50 stores,” he said. “We want to invest time and energy with the Apparel team.”

Carrefour has a network of over 15,000 stores in more than 40 countries. Carrefour International Partnership manages all its franchised partners worldwide, operating in more than 30 countries with over 4,000 stores. Carrefour posted sales of €91.5 billion in 2025.