by Eugene Vorotnikov - FoodBizDaily.com - Moscow
October 20 2009 - Europe's largest retailer Carrefour is abandoning Russia, but keeping plans to open its stores on the retail space of some Russian companies. According to Russian media, one of the largest local retail chains "Magnet» has already received such a proposal from Carrefour, but decided to reject it.
Yesterday, Carrefour reported that two of its Moscow hypermarkets will continue their usual work until the time of the sale, while the third hypermarket in Lipetsk will be opened as scheduled in November this year. It is supposed that the deadline for the sale of the objects will be set on January-April 2010.
The decision of selling its Russian business announced by Carrefour last week, due to the inability of the company to become a market leader in the short and medium term. The company was discouraged by the administrative barriers and the level of bureaucracy in Russia.
A source close to Russia's office of Carrefour, told that the company is still looking for an opportunity to enter the local market, possibly by franchising approach. According to him, about a week ago, Carrefour had a meeting with a number of Russian retailers, where making a proposal to Magnet.
According to most analysts Carrefour is planning to find a franchise partner in Russia during the next 3-4 weeks, however there were no official information.
Carrefour can not offer any franchisee purchasing power to its Russian partners, most of the local analysts believe. The company does not have a strong platform in Russia and can not compete with other market players.
However signing an agreement today will give a chance to Carrefour to return to the market later. Currently the French Company has franchises in the Middle East, Japan, Morocco and some other countries.