Carrefour, Who Lost The Crown, Entered Substantive Negotiations.

　　2009年，来自台湾的大润发以400亿元的销售额超越家乐福，成为中国销售规模最大的外资超市。

Today, Carrefour, who lost the crown, is trying to grasp a chance to tie the score.

The reporter learned exclusively that Carrefour's merger and acquisition of Hebei's retailing giant Bao Long Cang Chain Store Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Bao Long warehouse) entered a substantive stage.

If the negotiations are successful, Carrefour will hold the Dragon shop to complete its first acquisition business since its entry into the Chinese market.

"Carrefour is mainly based on its own development. If there is a suitable opportunity for M & A, we will also consider it."

When reporters asked about Carrefour, Carrefour spokesman Chen Boru said.

According to the information of reporters, Carrefour began to contact with Bao Long warehouse earlier this year.

"The details of mergers and acquisitions have basically been finalized, waiting for the local government to make a stand."

A person familiar with the matter told reporters.

Not long ago, Lars Olofsson, chief executive of Carrefour, said that the country that would quit its third place in sales performance is ready to expand its pace of expansion in China and India.

The merger is undoubtedly the best footnote.

Advance into Hebei Market

This will be the first acquisition of Carrefour since entering China.

Since its opening in China in 1995, Carrefour has been opening its own stores, and there are few mergers and acquisitions.

Lai Yang, a researcher at Beijing Vocational College of Finance and Commerce, said that the government had more control over foreign mergers and acquisitions, and now that the policy is loose, Carrefour will find more opportunities for acquisitions.

Carrefour declined to disclose details of the acquisition.

According to the people familiar with the matter, Bao Long Cang, Hebei, was valued by many retail businesses. Before Carrefour, Huarun Wan also tried to buy Bao Long warehouse.

"Carrefour should value the management team of Bao Long Cang."

Hao Chenxi, general manager of Hebei Hui You group, told reporters.

Founded in 1994, Hui You group is a local retail enterprise in Hebei. It has many formats including comprehensive supermarkets, hypermarkets and shopping centers.

Liu Haibin, vice general manager of Huapu supermarket in Beijing, thinks that hypermarkets have been developing in China for more than 10 years, and high-quality online stores have become scarce resources, and acquisition is the best way to obtain network resources.

Statistics show that Bao Long Cang, founded in 1998, is the largest comprehensive supermarket operator in Hebei province.

At present, Bao Long Cang has opened 14 stores in 7 cities of Hebei, Shandong, two provinces, including Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao and Dezhou.

As a leading enterprise in Hebei Province, the sales volume of Bao Long warehouse reached 3 billion 156 million yuan in 2009, and entered 3 billion 296 million strong brands in 2009 with the brand value of 3 billion 296 million yuan.

Analysts believe that Carrefour has entered Hebei through the acquisition of the "long curve" of Bao Long warehouse. On the one hand, because of its main form of warehousing supermarket, Bao Long warehouse is closer to Carrefour's hypermarket format, providing convenience for future integration; on the other hand, it has nothing to do with the particularity of Hebei market.

For retailers, Hebei is an exceptionally exclusive market.

In the short period of 3 years from 2002 to 2005, Shanghai Century Lianhua, Wan Kelong, lotus, Shenzhen Ren Ren Yue, Huapu supermarket and Tianjin home world went to Hebei market to find treasure.

However, Hebei does not seem to welcome these far away guests. The operating conditions of these outsiders are not satisfactory.

In this regard, Professor Hong Tao of Beijing Technology and Business University believes that foreign supermarkets in Hebei province are easy to be "acclimatized".

Hebei consumers are conservative in concept and slow in accepting foreign things. After years of operation, local retail businesses already have very high market share and good reputation in the local market, and many years have formed brand influence, which makes it difficult for foreign retail enterprises to take a foothold in development.

Therefore, the acquisition of Bao Long Cang can help Carrefour settle in Hebei.

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Carrefour's acquisition of Bao Long Cang, Hebei's retail industry will face a shuffle situation.

The characteristic of Hebei's retail industry is that the separatist phenomenon is obvious.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are more, but they are more loose and fight against each other.

In addition to the beichi group and Bao Long warehouse, which are headquartered in Shijiazhuang, other cities in Hebei have relatively strong local retail businesses, such as Tangshan's Tangshan department store, Kim klung lung, Baoding's Hui You group, the times commercial building, Handan's sunshine department store, gourmet forest group, etc.

Puzzled by "Whampoa military academy"

Carrefour's background in the Chinese market is the change in its global front.

Since 2009, Carrefour's overseas market has been frequently withdrawn from the markets such as Russia, Japan and southern Italy.

According to foreign media reports, Carrefour's global performance fell 1.4% in 2009 compared with the same period last year. Sales of European regional stores, including France, continued to decline for several consecutive quarters. Carrefour even considered closing down the headquarters office building in upper Seine, in order to save office rents.

Amid the gloomy global performance, Carrefour and China's Brazil market were "good at the scenery." in 2009, Carrefour's sales in China increased by 16% over the same period last year.

Therefore, the Chinese market is naturally "life-saving straw".

"China is the focus of Carrefour development. Carrefour is committed to long-term development in China, and plans to open 20 to 25 stores a year."

Carrefour spokesman Chen Bo told reporters.

Even so, Carrefour still faces strong pressure in China.

"2009 is Carrefour's" inflection point ". Not only is its development abroad blocked, but in China, the number of Carrefour stores has been surpassed by WAL-MART, and its sales volume has been surpassed by Da Yun FA.

Hong Tao told reporters.

In addition to foreign giants such as WAL-MART and big RFA, China's local retail enterprises have grown rapidly into new forces.

The "teachers" of these local supermarkets are Carrefour.

China's local retail enterprises have a strong "Carrefour complex".

"Most of the local retail business is modeled on Carrefour."

Retail industry observer Chen Yuefeng told reporters.

Therefore, in the industry, Carrefour has the name of "Whampoa military academy" - Carrefour's talent is very popular in the industry.

These talents bring Carrefour management mode to local supermarkets.

As students gradually mature, Carrefour's pressure as a "teacher" increases.

"It should be said that from the form to the God, the most common learning and imitation of Chinese local retailers is Carrefour, and it is through learning and imitation that local retailers grow up quickly.

This time the problem appears, when the local retailers in the market environment, display layout, atmosphere building, promotion means, management system and other aspects can be like to look like, Carrefour's advantage in the Chinese market will be as obvious as the initial stage? "

Chen Yuefeng said.

In addition, Carrefour stores are too large in terms of authority and excessive reliance on suppliers to become the bottleneck of Carrefour's development.

In order to better achieve localization, Carrefour gave full authorization to stores in the early days of entering China.

Carrefour "fully empowers the store manager as the core" mode of operation, promoting sales, purchasing, pricing power and so on.

However, when the number of stores increases and the scale increases rapidly, "full authorization" is likely to lead to confusion in management and corruption.

On the other hand, the "profit oriented" business model which is overly dependent on supplier costs will restrict Carrefour's development.

"Retailers should reduce their costs by integrating supply chains, thereby improving profitability rather than just charging suppliers."

Lai Yang said.