The FINANCIAL — Last week shoppers at Carrefour were disappointed to find that prices have increased.
The FINANCIAL — Last week shoppers at Carrefour were disappointed to find that prices have increased. “The previous week I bought a bottle of oil for GEL 2.95 and the next week it cost GEL 3.45,” Nino Nemsadze, 29, told The FINANCIAL. Nemsadze said that she has the feeling that the company used the label of ‘cheapest shop’ to attract consumers and later simply increased prices. Jean Louis Clary, General Manager at MAF Carrefour Georgia, said that the company is continuing negotiations with suppliers on discounted prices.
“The price policy of our company is very clear. We have to be cheaper everywhere, every time. My team is working every day to follow this policy,” Clary said.
“When we obtain an extra discount we immediately give it to our customers through extra price decreases for one week, or one month, depending on the negotiated quantity. When it is finished we return to normal prices which must in any case be the cheapest on the market,” Clary said.
With investments of GEL 25 million MAF Carrefour Georgia was opened in Tbilisi Mall on 13 September. Carrefour Georgia is a joint venture of Carrefour Group and Majid Al Futaim in Dubai. According to Clary, the main difficulties they have faced in Georgia have been getting deliveries with the quantities that they have ordered which were in some cases unexpected by suppliers.
In the next three years MAF Carrefour Georgia is going to open another three hypermarkets in Tbilisi. The company is opening hypermarkets in Batumi, Rustavi, probably in Kutaisi, perhaps in Telavi. And we are thinking about opening supermarkets as well,” Clary added.
“We are not only interested in Georgia. Next year we will be opening in Armenia and in Kazakhstan. Opening in Tbilisi was our first opening in the Caucasus, other countries will come. Regarding the current situation in Georgia, a lot of work is being done to facilitate investment and business, and at the same time very important work is being done too in terms of corruption, of course in accordance with these factors it was easier to open in this country first,” Clary said.
It was recently announced that the largest Ukrainian chain – Furshet, will be opening on the Georgian market. The family purchase supermarket chain Furshet was the first national supermarket chain to introduce the best world standards of modern technologies and services.
“A normal reaction could be to say that we are directly in competition with Goodwill but I believe that there is space for everybody,” he added.
Nugzar Shevardnadze, founder of the first Georgian hypermarket Goodwill, blamed Carrefour of ‘dumping’. Carrefour denied Shevardnadze’s allegation however, stating that products were overpriced in Georgia. “When we were accused of dumping, you have to know that that is out of daily policy,” Clary said.
Goodwill recently abolished 10% discounts, which were introduced a few weeks before the entrance of Carrefour, supposedly to beat the prices of the new competitor. The prices of some products have even become more expensive since the 10% discounts were abolished than they were before the campaign started.
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