CarrefourSA will continue to grow with new investments

CarrefourSA contributes to the transformation in the organized food retail sector with new investments and business models. CarrefourSA CEO Kutay Kartallıoğlu said, ‘With our 30 years of experience and expertise, we will continue to grow with new investments under the roof of our company.’ Sabancı Holding and Carrefour Group joint venture, one of the leading brands in the Turkish retail sector, CarrefourSA, continues its operations with 1100 stores in 60 provinces and a team of 15,000 people, including dealers. Emphasizing their leadership in the organized retail sector with change and transformation, CarrefourSA CEO Kutay Kartallıoğlu highlights that they continue their growth strategy not only in a single area but also in multiple areas with the right investments. Kartallıoğlu said, ‘By creating a value ecosystem, we focus on growth as a company that involves small shopkeepers and entrepreneurs in the game.’
CarrefourSA addressed the changing habits and new needs of customers in the organized food retail sector, entering a significant transformation with new service networks, different business lines, and growth strategies. Kartallıoğlu emphasized that for many years they have invested not only in CarrefourSA but also in the future of the sector, stating, ‘We serve in 60 provinces with 1100 stores and 50,000 products, both food and non-food. We had 207 million customer visits annually to our online and physical stores. As a company, besides reaching the customer with the right product at the right price, we diversify our investments in sectors such as food and beverage, HORECA, dealerships, exports.’
Investment in growth model with small shopkeepers and entrepreneurs, Kartallıoğlu said, ‘We have a system design in our company where we can feed all stakeholders and grow together. Our franchise system, which we launched in 2020 and reached 425 small shopkeepers and entrepreneurs, of which 60 are women today, is the most concrete example of this. We are steadily progressing towards our target of 1000 franchisees and offering our company’s product management, digital infrastructure, logistics facilities, and corporate strength to our franchisees.’
Kartallıoğlu continued, ‘The most important aspect of our investments is the food and beverage sector that we have brought together under the Lezzet Arası (In Between Tastes) umbrella. Since 2017, in our journey to provide customers with a restaurant experience at market prices in our stores, we have reached 14 Lezzet Arası restaurants in 6 provinces today. Our 14 restaurants are visited by 500,000 people monthly. In the cloud kitchen concept we started in 2023, we continue to offer meal delivery service with 10 of our brands at 2 locations, Mecidiyeköy and MKM Etiler. In 2024, we added Lezzet Arası Catering to our food and beverage investments. Here, we provide service with special menus prepared by Lezzet Arası chefs for special events and activities.’
In our approach to new generation food retailing, the importance of our CarrefourSA Professional brand investments in the HORECA sector is significant. We took the first step with our distribution center investment for hotels, restaurants, and cafes in Antalya. Then, we launched our HORECA store in Bodrum Konacık. In this store that makes a difference with its processing facility, we make professionals’ lives easier with a wide range of products in meat and seafood categories; we meet all their food and non-food needs from a single point. In the first 4 months of 2024, our HORECA revenue reached 3.5% of our company’s revenue. Our goal is to sustain this success with sustainable growth in a short time.
Kartallıoğlu emphasized that they export the products of local producers to 13 countries, highlighting that they are one of the 9 countries within the Carrefour Group with permission for own-brand production. He said, ‘Our customers prefer own-brand products more in their shopping baskets due to the quality and competitive pricing advantages offered by these products. Especially food products such as milk, water, eggs, cooking oil, rice, and chocolate, as well as paper products such as toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins, are among the most preferred products. Currently, we have more than 600 own-brand products. This number will reach 750 by the end of the year. Our own-brand product category, which constitutes 17% of our revenue, has a strong export capacity. With our own-brand products exported to 13 countries, our goal is to grow even further.’
Kartallıoğlu stated that for the successful and sustainable implementation of growth plans, they follow a long-term path, emphasizing the increasing importance of digitalization and new communication channels within this transformation. He continued, ‘In recent years, we embarked on a fijital transformation as a company. Our aim here is to provide services through multiple sales channels. We serve through both digital and physical stores. Our e-commerce channel is visited by more than 8.5 million monthly and delivers 265,000 orders per month. With a total of 86 stores in 26 provinces and our web depot, we provide services through our e-commerce channel that can deliver to every part of Turkey. In addition, during the summer season, we offer services to customers in holiday destinations and on boats, with 25 stores serving 38 marinas, our Blue boat, our electric bicycles, and drone delivery service.’
Kartallıoğlu added, ‘We are continuing our energy investments. We need to carry out sustainable efforts in all areas for new investments, growth, and transformation to be successful.’ As a subsidiary of Sabancı Holding, we continue our work in line with the ‘Net Zero by 2050’ commitment. In addition, we have started working to give a commitment to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in 2023. By becoming signatories to the UN Global Compact, we have become part of the global network for a sustainable future. In the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reporting, as the only food retailer in Turkey reporting on the Forest Program, we raised our score from level B to A- (leadership) within a year in palm, timber, soy activities while maintaining our score of level B in livestock activities and level A in Climate Change. Nearly 700 of our stores have zero waste certificates. Our work in waste and recycling continues. Just in 2023, we prevented 10,000 tons of drinking water pollution with 10 tons of waste oil collected. We saved more than 250 tons of food from becoming waste. We have accelerated our investments in energy savings. The energy saving amount we made last year exceeded 22 million kWh. Our store parking lots continue to transform into e-charging stations. Currently, we have 49 active e-charging stations in our stores. Our goal in the coming years is to take new steps that will further advance both CarrefourSA and the sector.