French Auchan could enter Turkish market

ISTANBUL

French Carrefour’s rival Auchan wants to penetrate the Turkish retail market. Hürriyet photo

Carrefour, a global French retailer, is considering a Turkey walkout, while Auchan, another French retailer, is eyeing opportunities in the Turkish market, according to Retailnews.com, a local news portal with a focus on retail markets.

Carrefour Chief Executive Officer Georges Plassat said in August that Carrefour was considering selling some of its operations in countries like Turkey and Indonesia.

Auchan, the strongest rival of Carrefour in home market France, has recently accelerated studies to carve out an appropriate strategy to penetrate the Turkish retail market, sources have said, adding that two options are currently on the table.

The first option is to acquire a local supermarket chain. The other option is to purchase Real hypermarkets, which will be sold by the German retailer Metro Group.

The ongoing European financial crisis has hit retailers most as consumers reduce their spending due to economic uncertainty and falling growth rates. European retailers, meanwhile, are looking into developing countries to cushion the drop in profits.

Turkey, in particular, is in the spotlight of European businesses with its high growth rates and expanding domestic market, which has led to increasing foreign capital investments in the country.

Auchan’s net profit fell 30.3 percent to 237 million euros in the first half of the year. Auchan, founded in 1961, is present in 12 countries and employs around 269,000 people.