06 September 2008
Can French hypermarket chain Carrefour set the ball rolling for Iran's economic liberalization? And what are the potential implications of this outside influence for trade, inflation, and the country's food industry?
Workers at a construction site close to Tehran's Azadi sports stadium are fixing pre-cast concrete to complete the first floor of what will be a five-storey building. The workers know only that it will house a supermarket but have no clue they are building Tehran's first international hypermarket, for Carrefour of France. The French retailer will be at the center of a building also housing furniture and clothing shops.
"This is a good middle-class neighborhood for Carrefour because western Tehran with high population density does not have enough shopping centers," one engineer says.
According to Arabian Business, the imminent arrival of a franchise of Carrefour might have been expected to attract some excitement. Tehran must be one of the few cities in the world without an international supermarket chain.
Carrefour opens shops in the Middle East through Majid al-Futtaim (MAF), its Dubai-based franchisee and has no plans to open a store in Tehran on its own. The UAE-based group and its representative office in Tehran, MAF Pars Hypermarket, declined to comment.
The supermarket will be the fruit of a joint venture between the government and MAF, with the former leasing the land for 20 years and providing permits and the latter investing 16 million euros.
"The shop in Tehran will carry the Carrefour brand while MAF will be the license holder of this brand," says Hossein Kalkhorani, managing director of Tehran Municipality's Investment Organization.
"MAF has sent the standards of Carrefour shops to major domestic producers so that their products, if they meet those standards, can be supplied not only in Iran's branches but other branches of Carrefour," says Kalkhorani.
The store will open by mid-March next year. MAF plans to open 20 hypermarkets in Iran in the next 10 years.
Can French hypermarket chain Carrefour set the ball rolling for Iran's economic liberalization? And what are the potential implications of this outside influence for trade, inflation, and the country's food industry?
Workers at a construction site close to Tehran's Azadi sports stadium are fixing pre-cast concrete to complete the first floor of what will be a five-storey building. The workers know only that it will house a supermarket but have no clue they are building Tehran's first international hypermarket, for Carrefour of France. The French retailer will be at the center of a building also housing furniture and clothing shops.
"This is a good middle-class neighborhood for Carrefour because western Tehran with high population density does not have enough shopping centers," one engineer says.
According to Arabian Business, the imminent arrival of a franchise of Carrefour might have been expected to attract some excitement. Tehran must be one of the few cities in the world without an international supermarket chain.
Carrefour opens shops in the Middle East through Majid al-Futtaim (MAF), its Dubai-based franchisee and has no plans to open a store in Tehran on its own. The UAE-based group and its representative office in Tehran, MAF Pars Hypermarket, declined to comment.
The supermarket will be the fruit of a joint venture between the government and MAF, with the former leasing the land for 20 years and providing permits and the latter investing 16 million euros.
"The shop in Tehran will carry the Carrefour brand while MAF will be the license holder of this brand," says Hossein Kalkhorani, managing director of Tehran Municipality's Investment Organization.
"MAF has sent the standards of Carrefour shops to major domestic producers so that their products, if they meet those standards, can be supplied not only in Iran's branches but other branches of Carrefour," says Kalkhorani.
The store will open by mid-March next year. MAF plans to open 20 hypermarkets in Iran in the next 10 years.
© Iran Daily 2008
