Carrefour returns to India and opens in Noida (Delhi). 50 stores planned

Carrefour is reopening the Indian chapter, 12 years after the closure of its first and only 5 pilot stores. The plan is substantial and has a high-profile partner.

The first hypermarket of the new venture got off the ground on Friday 14 August 2026 in Delhi, in the suburb-city of Noida. And the target, for now without a timetable, is to reach around fifty stores.

Carrefour chooses Apparel Group

This time, the French group moved with the support of an exceptional partner, Apparel Group of Dubai, focused mainly on fashion and beauty brands: Tommy Hillfifger, Adidas, Bruno Magli, Clarks, Birkestock Havaianas, Clinique, Clarins... But its portfolio also includes discount retailers, such as the Canadian Dollar Plus (non-food) and pizza-fast-food restaurants, including Pizza Nyc.

The agreement with Apparel dates back to 2024, a sign that the operation has been studied for a long time.

The Emirati group is a true powerhouse: founded in 1996, it describes itself as a leading player in the clothing retail and food and beverage sectors.

With more than 24.000 employees, Apparel manages a portfolio of more than 85 brands and around 2.600 stores in more than 14 countries across the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and Africa.

The master franchisor is well established in the Indian subcontinent, where it has developed a network of around 300 outlets in more than 35 cities and 15 states.

2014: the reasons for the exit

Carrefour’s first Indian blitz, which lasted from 2010 to 2014, had led to its withdrawal mainly because, after the government authorised foreign companies to open large-format wholesale outlets, the French group had acted alone.

Moreover, it had placed too much faith in still-fragile legislation, which caused negotiations with a possible ally, Bharti Enterprises, to collapse at the last minute. In the meantime, the latter had lost Walmart as a client and was looking for a new partner in the mass market.

Let us return to the present. The capital’s outlet is a small hypermarket, with a sales area of 4.000 sq m, and a strong assortment of 15.000 products.

India, a promised land

Strictly speaking, the plan should unfold as expected: Apparel, as we have seen, is certainly no novice, given its vast portfolio, which generates an estimated turnover equivalent to at least 3,5 billion US dollars.

Carrefour, for its part, without dwelling on figures well known to the reader, is constantly looking for new countries to colonise, having abandoned various markets that were too competitive or insufficiently profitable, such as Italy, Romania and Turkey, and then Jordan, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain, where the network was managed by the Majid Al Futtaim group.

The fact that the Indian market is a new business horizon is no mystery. The country’s population is the largest in the world, at 1,47 billion people, with an average age of around 30 years; the lower middle class is developing. Technology and digital infrastructure are advancing by leaps and bounds, and the government of Narendra Modi (Bharatiya Janata Party) has launched a robust and highly serious plan of incentives and tax breaks for businesses.

The tax exemption programme will continue until 2041 in certain cases, such as foreign companies supplying machinery, equipment and components for local production.

APPAREL GROUP ON THE MAP

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.