MILESTONES OF A 31˹YEAR HISTORY IN THE TURKISH MARKET

The Carrefour group has been operating in the Turkish market for 31 years since its entrance in 1991. The first store was opened in 1993, Kozyatagi Carrefour, which was very successful. It is still a landmark in the Asian side of Istanbul.

The Kozyatagi store was included in the top five Carrefour Group stores globally at that time. As such, the group decided to increase its investments in Turkey and began looking for a partner.

After the decision to make larger investments in Turkey, Carrefour’s path crossed with the Sabanci Group. SabancŨ Holding officially became a partner in the company in 1996. As a result, a second store opened in Adana, the Sabanci homeland. This is how the joint success story of the two groups began.

CarrefourSa’s critical turning point took place in 2005 with the acquisition of Gima. Gima was then a very large retail chain in Turkey with 90 stores. Thus, the company took over its warehouses and added supermarkets to its hypermarket business.

A share exchange between Carrefour Group and Sabanci Holding took place in 2013 when Carrefour decided to hold take the minority by lowering its shares by 12 points from 58% to 46%, in line with its localization strategy.

In 2015, Kiler market chain was purchased by the group.