Carrefour is betting big on its second innings in India. After exiting the country in 2014, the French retail giant has returned with a consumer-facing format and, this time, a plan to build a 50-store network with Apparel Group within the next 3 years.
The first store, opened in Greater Noida in August, spans more than 50,000 sq ft and carries over 15,000 SKUs. The second Delhi-NCR store, a much smaller 10,000 sq ft format, is scheduled to open in October.
“We plan to open 50 stores in the first three years,” said Nilesh Ved, Chairman, APPCORP Holding and Owner, Apparel Group.
The partners are looking at a mix of compact hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience and gourmet formats, rather than the large-format hypermarkets associated with Carrefour globally.
“We’re not going to go for large hypermarkets. We’re going to go for hypermarket compact or supermarket size, convenience, then we put e-commerce or quick commerce along the road to fuel the strategy,” said Patrick Lasfargues, Executive Director–International Partnership, Carrefour.
The strategy is being built around clusters, with Delhi-NCR as the initial market. The company is also open to acquiring existing retail businesses to accelerate its footprint.
“If there is any retailer that wants to sell, we can have a look,” Lasfargues said, adding that Carrefour could consider businesses where owners are facing execution or family-related challenges.
The aim is not just to add stores, but to build enough scale to make private labels viable. Carrefour plans to start developing local private labels across food and non-food within the next 9-18 months, once it reaches critical mass.
“In France, private label is around 37 per cent of our turnover,” Lasfargues said. The India opportunity, he added, goes beyond domestic consumption, with Carrefour also looking to export private-label products made in India to international markets.
The sourcing opportunity is central to the India strategy. The venture plans to combine Carrefour’s international capabilities with Apparel Group’s local market knowledge, supplier ecosystem and real estate expertise.
“We are looking to export in the next five years from India,” Lasfargues said.
The business is also being designed as an omnichannel operation from the outset. Apparel Group plans to build an integrated ecosystem spanning physical stores, technology, modern logistics and local partnerships, with e-commerce and quick commerce eventually being serviced from the back-end of its stores.
“We will do the hybrid model, which will start from our stores behind, in the back of the stockroom,” Lasfargues said.
But unlike the rapid land-grab approach seen across Indian retail, Carrefour is emphasising profitability over speed.
“We are investing in India and this time we’re going to keep investing and make sure that it gets on the right track and be profitable,” he said.
Globally, Carrefour stores typically take 1.5-3 years to break even, although the company believes the India business could potentially reach that point faster.
The confidence comes from what the partners see as a fundamentally different India from the one Carrefour left behind in 2014.
“It’s actually a different India,” Lasfargues said, pointing to GDP growth, a young population, rising consumption aspirations and a rapidly changing economic landscape.
For Apparel Group, Carrefour is another leg of a much larger India growth story. The group now operates more than 300 stores across 50 cities in India with over 20 brands. Globally, it has more than 2,600 stores and 85 brands.
Apparel Group is targeting $1 billion in India revenue over the next five years, alongside an expansion of its overall India store network.
Carrefour brings significant global scale to the partnership. Carrefour International Partnership manages more than 4,000 franchised stores across over 30 countries, while the wider Carrefour Group operates more than 15,000 stores globally. The retailer posted €91.5 billion in sales in 2025 and has more than 300,000 employees across its integrated store network.
Published On Sep 3, 2026 at 07:29 PM IST
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