Carrefour Supermarkets to Open in Balkans

Carrefour, which is a French company, said in a statement that "the goal is to open hypermarkets and supermarkets under the Carrefour banners in the Balkans. The plan is to expand in Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia."

Carrefour, which has been in operation for 40 years, is the largest retail chain in Europe and second in the world. It has as many as 495,000 employees in 15,500 stores in 35 countries.

According to Beta news agency, Carrefour could not specify the starting day for launching their operation but said that the new company would be 60 per cent owned by the French company, while the rest would be in the hands of "Carrefour-Marinopulos", which was founded 17 years ago as a joint company owned by Carrefour and Marinopoulos.

The company's joint subsidiary in Bulgaria [80 per cent owned by Carrefour Marinopoulos and 20 per cent by Carrefour S.A.] is set to be merged into this new company.