On the 23rd, Suning.com announced the acquisition of 80% of Carrefour China's shares and became the controlling shareholder of Carrefour China after the transaction was completed. Brilliant - Once known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the retail industry, French entrepreneur

23, Suning.com announced the acquisition of 80% of Carrefour China's shares and became the controlling shareholder of Carrefour China after the transaction was completed. This traditional supermarket, which has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for 24 years, will change its surname to "Su".

Brilliant

——Once known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the retail industry

French entrepreneur Carrefour was founded in 1959 and is the founder of the concept of large-scale comprehensive supermarkets. It is a Fortune Global 500 company with operations in more than 30 countries and regions around the world. region, operating more than 12,000 retail stores.

In 1995, Carrefour officially entered the Chinese mainland market and was one of the first foreign-funded retail companies to do business in China. Sitting on a vast market with little impact from competitors, Carrefour China enjoys the dividends brought by pioneers.

By 2006, the number of Carrefour stores in China exceeded 100, and they were opened in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other places. became the one with the largest number of stores among foreign-funded retail supermarkets and a veritable hypermarket giant in the Chinese market.

"Happy Shopping Carrefour" and "One-stop Shopping" are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The "hypermarket" format was introduced into China in the form of a "joint venture", and models such as the docking of farmers and supermarkets were realized, which also made Carrefour a benchmark in the industry. had also It is known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the retail industry.

△ Carrefour Supermarket | Data map

decline

- market share dropped to 3%, overtaken by Yonghui Group

However, in the fierce business circle, Carrefour China gradually lost its competitiveness. Since 2009, Carrefour's performance in China has been declining year after year:

In 2009, Carrefour's sales in the domestic market were surpassed by RT-Mart; in 2010, Carrefour's number of stores in China was overtaken by and Walmart . From 2012 to 2017, Carrefour's sales in mainland China dropped from 5.583 billion euros to 4.619 billion euros, a decrease of 17.27%. In 2018, Gome, Suning , RT-Mart, China Resources Vanguard and Wal-Mart ranked among the top five in the list of the top 100 chains of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association. Carrefour China was squeezed out of the top 10, ranking 12th.

Kantar Worldpanel shows that in 2018, Carrefour’s China market share dropped to 3%, and was overtaken by Yonghui Group.

△ Carrefour Supermarket played a promotional card to attract popularity | Data map

Mistakes

- Missing the ten-year golden period of China's e-commerce development

The 10 years of Carrefour China's decline were exactly the 10 years of rapid development of China's online retail market. Because it failed to seize this opportunity, its business format was severely impacted.

In the past 10 years, Carrefour China, which started as a hypermarket model, has also encountered "chasing and interception" from small retail formats such as offline retail convenience stores.

The China Chain Store and Franchise Association's Top 100 Chain List shows:

In 2018, the sales scale of the top 100 convenience store companies increased by 21.1%, the number of stores increased by 18.0%, and 11,944 new stores were added, accounting for 62.5% of the total number of new stores in the top 100; 2018 In 2017, the average sales volume of the top 100 companies that mainly operate large supermarkets increased by 2.5%, and the average number of stores increased by 3.6%, which was significantly lower than the average growth rate of the top 100 companies.

"The hypermarket model is increasingly difficult to adapt to new consumer demands." Industry insiders analyze that residents in some areas, mainly first- and second-tier cities, have shifted from the initial pursuit of low-priced goods to the pursuit of brands and personalized consumption, and then gradually Entering the new consumption era of "tending to be rational, balancing price and quality" .

Moreover, Chinese e-commerce giants have entered new retail and laid out the offline market. , such as Alibaba's Hema Fresh, Suning Store , NetEase Kaola, NetEase Yanxuan, etc., are "cannibalizing" the offline retail market of traditional supermarket chains such as Carrefour.

Mistakes in strategic decision-making and internal management problems have caused Carrefour China's performance to decline year after year.

△ Carrefour Supermarket丨Information picture

Survival

- After 4 years of hard work, the book net assets became negative

In fact, before selling out, the declining Carrefour had not thought about changes:

Since March 2015, Carrefour China has centralized purchasing power and reorganized 6 A procurement center and 6 logistics distribution centers have been established to fully cover the logistics and distribution of stores across the country to make up for the shortcomings of domestic procurement and supply chain. In 2015, Carrefour China launched its e-commerce business and built its own e-commerce platform to adapt to users' consumption habits and take advantage of the "big cake" of online retail. Since 2017, Carrefour has cooperated with a number of online ordering platforms to launch one-hour delivery services. Carrefour has also made efforts in small retail and opened convenience stores. In May 2018, Carrefour launched its China smart retail flagship store in Shanghai. At the same time, we will strengthen the renovation and upgrading of existing stores and cooperate with well-known domestic and foreign brands to develop a "store-in-store" model.

...

But not all efforts will yield the desired results.

Carrefour China’s 2018 financial report shows that its revenue in 2018 was 29.958 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.67%. According to Suning’s announcement, Carrefour China’s book net assets were negative, and its owner’s equity attributable to the parent company in 2018 was -1.927 billion yuan.

Carrefour explained: In recent years, offline retail formats have been impacted by the Internet. Although they have responded actively, they have still caused periodic operating losses.

△ Suning.com丨Data chart

sells

- it has just strategically cooperated with Gome, but it was sold to its old rival

. Before Suning.com issued the acquisition announcement, Carrefour had repeatedly reported "selling out" news.

In January 2018, Carrefour announced potential investment in Carrefour China by Tencent and Yonghui; in April 2019, Carrefour China announced a strategic cooperation with Gome. Tencent, Yonghui and Gome are all rumored to be "prostitutes" to Carrefour China.

In the end, what I didn’t expect was that just over two months after reaching strategic cooperation with Gome, Carrefour China handed over the initiative of destiny to Gome’s “old rival” Suning.

After Suning announced the acquisition of Carrefour China, Yonghui Supermarket announced on the evening of June 24 that "the company has decided to terminate negotiations to invest in Carrefour China." It is still unknown whether the cooperation between Carrefour and Gome can continue.

The only thing that is clear is that Carrefour Group used the transaction to throw away a hot potato.

Carrefour is not the first traditional supermarket to be acquired, nor will it be the last. In recent years, due to poor operating conditions, it has become normal for foreign-funded supermarket chains to seek "foreign aid": Wal-Mart joined hands with , JD.com, , Tesco was incorporated into China Resources, and and Auchan's business was also taken over by RT-Mart.

"With Alibaba taking a stake in RT-Mart, Tencent teaming up with Yonghui, and Suning acquiring Carrefour China, the 'marriage' between new retail and traditional supermarkets will continue." Some industry insiders said so.

▌Source of this article: China News Service

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