Carrefour closes the Louis Delhaize Group transaction and begins the integration of all Cora stores in Romania

Carrefour closes the transaction with the Louis Delhaize Group and acquires all Cora brand activities in Romania. Along with the 10 hypermarkets and 9 convenience stores, Carrefour also becomes the employer of all over 2000 employees who, until now, have ensured Cora’s activity in Romania.

In the upcoming timeframe, the newly acquired hypermarkets and convenience stores will enter a gradual transformation process, which is estimated to be completed by the end of 2024. Carrefour is determined to offer its customers the best in-store experience, therefore all hypermarkets are planned to remain open during the rebranding process, while small urban formats will be quickly transformed into Carrefour Express after a short period of closing. In short, Cora hypermarkets will enter the process of becoming Carrefour starting from the end of year 2023, all being included in an integrated manner by the campaign Cora devine Carrefour, which will take customers through the process and all the new benefits.

The entire client experience will gradually evolve from the current state to the Carrefour universe, from portfolio selection and supplier network, with a focus to integrate all best practices from the new team, while keeping the Carrefour quality, commercial expertise and focus on local products. The strategy will be implemented in a step by step manner, ensuring a best of both worlds’ approach, so that our future and existing clients will benefit from landmark Carrefour promo campaigns and product selection as soon as possible.The same approach will be applied for supplier and partnerships’ management with the aim to meet soon Carrefour procedures and standards.

The transaction, announced in April this year, was approved by the Competition Council in October 2023.

“We are preparing to end 2023 with an important acquisition for our company and enter the new year with a very well-developed plan to integrate all Cora stores. Our team will grow with more than 2000 new colleagues, and for the time coming, one of our top priorities will be focused on welcoming and integrating every single one of the former Cora employees into our world. Of course, our new common goal will be to ensure our new clients will have a great Carrefour experience all throughout the process. We will focus on engaging the Cora and Carrefour teams to work together to determine best practices from both companies and define the integration roadmap to the benefit of our customers. I would like to thank our partners, suppliers, and customers for the trust they offer us every day and for the support they will provide in the year to come“, said Julien Munch, CEO Carrefour Romania.

The transaction means an extension of the Carrefour portfolio to +430 stores spread across the country, at the signing date, contributing to the company’s consolidated presence in Romania, as one of top employers and leading retailers in the market.