Carrefour moves more pet food, litter and accessories through its aisles than almost any competitor, but the number that should interest a supplier is the compliance and logistics machine standing behind the shelf.
Carrefour: Scale, Format and Footprint
- Founded: 1959, with the first hypermarket opened in 1963 at Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, France, the format that reshaped global food retailing.
- Founders: Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey.
- Headquarters: Massy, France, in the southern Paris region.
- Ownership and leadership: Publicly listed on Euronext Paris. Alexandre Bompard is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Matthieu Malige is Chief Financial Officer.
- Scale and revenue: 2025 total sales including tax and fuel of EUR 91.5 billion, up 1.2 percent. Net sales were EUR 82,102 million, split France EUR 41,743 million, Brazil EUR 17,754 million, Spain EUR 10,958 million and other countries EUR 11,647 million. Recurring operating income before depreciation was EUR 4,506 million and recurring operating income EUR 2,158 million. Net profit fell to EUR 319 million, weighed down by the disposal of Carrefour Italia.
- Stores: A multi-format network of more than 14,000 to 15,000 stores in more than 40 countries under banners including Carrefour Hypermarket, Carrefour Market, Carrefour Express, Carrefour City, Atacadao in Brazil and Marche Frais by Carrefour.
- Workforce: More than 300,000 people in the integrated store network, with more than 500,000 working under the Carrefour banner worldwide once franchises are included.
- Customers and data: Approximately 10 billion transactions a year feed one of Europe’s largest retail data lakes. The “Le Club” loyalty programme is targeted to reach 60 million members by 2030.
- Assets: Real estate in France, Spain and Brazil independently appraised at EUR 14.2 billion at the end of 2025.
Everyday Low Price, Engineered
Carrefour is an integrated multi-format omnichannel retailer that increasingly leans on franchise and lease-management structures for its smaller formats. Under Carrefour 2030, France, Spain and Brazil account for approximately 85 percent of consolidated sales and nearly 99 percent of recurring operating income, and management has restructured its segment reporting around those three countries plus “Other countries” and “Global Functions”. Italy was divested in December 2025 and Romania was announced for sale; Belgium, Poland and Argentina are held with strategic options open.
The buying architecture changed materially in 2025. Carrefour and Coopérative U announced the Concordis European buying alliance on 7 July 2025, joined on 13 August 2025 by Germany’s RTG International, which negotiates on behalf of Rossmann, Globus, Bartels-Langness, Bunting, Netto, tegut, Kaes and Klaas & Kock. The three founding partners represent combined turnover of more than EUR 125 billion. Concordis is headquartered in Brussels, runs for an initial six years, and became operational for the 2026 supplier negotiation round. Its explicit purpose is to improve purchasing conditions with major multinational branded-goods suppliers while allowing each partner to retain full commercial autonomy. Carrefour and Coopérative U also intend to run joint tenders for standard private-label consumer goods while preserving product differentiation.
Price competitiveness in France is measured publicly against the “Distriprix Net” index compiled using NielsenIQ methodology, which includes promotions and loyalty discounts. Carrefour has committed to closing its gap to the market leader every year. Retail media is monetised through Unlimitail, the joint venture with Publicis Groupe, and roughly EUR 100 million a year is being invested in artificial intelligence, data and store digitisation, including electronic shelf labels.
The Pet Aisle at Carrefour
Carrefour carries pet food and pet care under its own Carrefour private-label architecture across hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience formats, and it has begun building services around the category rather than simply stocking it. In Spain, Carrefour has launched a Pet Club accessible to Carrefour Club members through an app, offering up to 5 percent savings on pet food purchases, free access to digital pet passport services and a veterinary chat provided through Petpass and funded by Carrefour Club. That is a meaningful signal: the group is treating pet owners as a distinct, high-frequency loyalty segment rather than as generic grocery shoppers.
Private label is where the volume opportunity sits. Carrefour private labels reached 38 percent of food sales in 2025, and the Carrefour 2030 plan commits to growing food private labels one and a half times faster than national brands every year in France, Spain and Belgium, and to gaining private-label market share in Europe and Brazil. Applied to pet food, a category where European private-label penetration already sits around 25 to 30 percent of retail volume and where supermarkets move an estimated 43 percent of pet food volume, that commitment translates into a multi-year requirement for additional own-brand pet capacity.
Format expansion compounds the opportunity. The plan targets more than 1,000 additional convenience stores and 50 additional Market stores in France, 160 Match stores, 750 additional convenience stores in Spain, and 70 additional Atacadao cash-and-carry units in Brazil, with a goal of 7,500 proximity stores across France and Spain by 2030. Convenience formats need compact, high-rotation pet ranges: small-format dry bags, single-serve wet pouches, litter in manageable pack sizes, treats and a tight accessory offer. Atacadao, meanwhile, is a bulk cash-and-carry channel that suits large-format dry food and value packs.
Passing the Carrefour Gate
Carrefour applies a two-layer test. The first layer is baseline ethical and social compliance: audited factory standards under widely recognised schemes such as amfori BSCI and Sedex or SMETA are the practical entry ticket for supplying a European grocery multiple of this size, and suppliers should have current audit reports available before opening a commercial conversation.
The second layer is climate and product transition. Carrefour reports formally against a corporate social responsibility and food transition index, achieving 113 percent of its 2025 objectives, with EUR 7.5 billion of sales in certified sustainable products and a 57 percent reduction in direct emissions versus 2019. The group has engaged its largest suppliers on science-based decarbonisation alignment, and suppliers to a private-label programme should expect to provide emissions data, packaging recyclability roadmaps and reformulation commitments on nutritional parameters. For pet food specifically, that means recyclable or reduced-material packaging under the European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, plus documented raw-material traceability.
Regulatory documentation for pet food follows the European framework: Regulation (EC) 767/2009 on the marketing and use of feed, Regulation (EC) 183/2005 on feed hygiene, Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 on animal by-products, and FEDIAF nutritional guidelines supporting complete-diet and life-stage claims. Hard goods require REACH conformity, relevant EN safety testing and full material declarations. Private-label tenders will also require artwork management in multiple languages, allergen and analytical constituent accuracy, shelf-life validation and second-source or contingency capacity.
On commercial mechanics, suppliers should assume national or multi-country volumes, annual negotiation cycles now influenced by Concordis for branded goods and increasingly by joint Carrefour and Coopérative U tenders for standard private-label lines, and pressure to fund the price-competitiveness commitment. Minimum order quantities are not published, but the practical requirement is continuous supply to thousands of stores with high service-level obligations. Suppliers should approach through Carrefour’s national buying organisations in France, Spain or Brazil, since the plan concentrates decision-making in those three markets.
2024-2026: Scale Meets Change
2024 sales were EUR 94.6 billion on the pre-disposal perimeter, restated to EUR 90.4 billion once Italy is excluded. During 2024 and 2025 Carrefour consolidated aggressively in France, completing the acquisition of Cora and Match from the Louis Delhaize group after French competition clearance in March 2025 conditional on divesting seven stores, and receiving approval in December 2024 to buy 25 stores operated under Casino group banners.
2025 was described by management as solid: comparable sales up 2.8 percent, fourth quarter up 1.6 percent like-for-like, e-commerce gross merchandise value up 21 percent for the year and 22 percent in the fourth quarter, and 456 new proximity openings in France. France’s historical perimeter achieved a 3.0 percent operating margin, an improvement of 31 basis points, while Spain grew operating profit 13.5 percent. Brazil was held back by high interest rates and commodity deflation in cash-and-carry.
Carrefour 2030 was presented in February 2026, with a dedicated investor session on 19 February. Targets include a recurring operating margin more than 25 basis points above 2025 in 2026, 3.2 percent in 2028 and 3.5 percent in 2030; EUR 1 billion of annual cost savings; EUR 5 billion cumulative net free cash flow across 2026 to 2028 against a 2025 base of EUR 1,565 million; capital expenditure rising from about EUR 1.8 billion to about EUR 2.0 billion by 2030; and market share goals of 25 percent in France, 20 percent in Brazil and a strengthened number two position in Spain. The group also aims to be the world’s leading retailer by geographic footprint in 2030 with 60 countries and the leading retailer in Africa with 22 countries. A EUR 0.97 ordinary dividend was proposed for 2025, up 5.4 percent, plus a EUR 150 million special dividend linked to the Romanian disposal. Analysts have characterised the targets as ambitious, and the share price fell on the announcement.
A Realistic Entry Path
Focus on three countries. Any pet-category resource you allocate to Carrefour should go to France, Spain and Brazil, because that is where 85 percent of sales and 99 percent of recurring operating income now sit, and where the store-opening programme is funded. Effort spent on the “Other countries” segment carries genuine perimeter risk.
Build a private-label first proposition. The commitment to grow food private labels one and a half times faster than national brands, from a base of 38 percent of food sales, is the clearest demand signal in European grocery pet at present. Come with own-brand pet food and pet care development capability, tiered good-better-best architecture, and the ability to support both hypermarket bulk formats and small convenience packs.
Design for proximity and for Atacadao simultaneously. The 7,500-store proximity target in France and Spain requires compact, fast-rotating, shelf-efficient pet ranges, while 70 additional Atacadao units in Brazil require large-format value packs. These are different specifications and different cost structures; treat them as separate product programmes.
Bring compliance and sustainability to the first meeting. Audited social compliance, emissions data, and a credible packaging recyclability roadmap are now qualifying conditions rather than differentiators. Finally, plan for a tougher negotiation environment: with Concordis pooling more than EUR 125 billion of buying power from the 2026 round onward and EUR 1 billion of annual cost savings targeted through 2030, margin will be contested. Suppliers who can substantiate cost-to-serve improvements, and who can contribute to the Pet Club style services and loyalty agenda that Carrefour is building in Spain, will hold better ground than those competing on unit price alone.
— Scott Zhu, Founder, GlobalPetIndex
Sources & Related Reading
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- More Market Intel: Retail Channel
- Global Pet Brand Directory
- E.Leclerc: France’s Price-Leader Cooperative and Value-Driven Pet Ranging
- Intermarché: The Federated Musketeers Network and Flexible Pet Sourcing
- Auchan: Hypermarket Turnaround and Restructured Pet Supply Risk
