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Carrefour's expansion in China

By Tuo Yannan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-12 11:20

"We are very proud of our local employees," Legros says. "We trained and developed 40 to 50 store managers each year, most of them are (from the mainland), who are really very highly qualified," he says, adding that the company owes much of its rapid growth at a rate of 20 to 25 stores by year to its local managers.

Indeed, the key word to Carrefour's success is localization, Legros says.

In the early days in China, most of Carrefour's managers were French and Spanish. At that time, hardly any Chinese people in the retail industry knew how to run a supermarket. "But now, we don't need them (foreign managers) anymore. We have talented people like Dai Wei," Legros says, pointing to his national public affairs director sitting beside him. "I'm so sure that some day, the president of Carrefour China will be a Chinese."

Carrefour established a Carrefour China Institute (CCI) in Shanghai in 2000 to train Chinese managers. Since then, the school has trained about 15,000 managers who are playing an important role in the fast expansion of Carrefour on the mainland. Last year, 40,000 employees attended various training programs on an average of 23 training hours for each person per year.

Each year, Carrefour China sends some local managers to Europe for further training to gain greater overseas market knowledge and experience, some of which can be applied in China. "This year, 100 percent of the 40 stores' managers we are promoting are Chinese," says Legros.

At the beginning, Carrefour opened in three very different cities in China, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The three cities are very far away from each other and had different characteristics. Carrefour had to adapt its stores to the specific needs of the consumers in each city.

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