CAMEROON – French retail group Carrefour has opened a new store in Yaounde Cameroon in the framework of its expansion in Sub-Sahara Africa in partnership with CFAO retail.
This is the second Carrefour store opened in Cameroon in less than 2 years following an investment of about XAF7 billion (US$11.7m).
The new store Located at Ekié, Yaoundé, sits on a 7,200 m2 land inclusive of a parking space and is set to offer close to 1,500 local products.
With its opening, it has created 150 direct jobs and about the same number of indirect jobs, according to Luc Demez, managing director of CFAO Retail Cameroon.
Jean-Christophe highlighted that the partnership of Carrefour-CFAO Retail will continue its expansion in Cameroon by opening at least two new supermarkets at Akwa shopping district in Douala in early 2020 whose construction works have already started.
Also the retailer is set to open the first-ever Supeco shop, specializing in the Cash & Carry concept where people can buy things in bulk.
Overall, by end-2020, Carrefour-CFAO Retail will have five supermarkets in Cameroon, four in Douala (Bonamoussadi, Akwa, Douala Grand Mall, and Supeco) while one will be in Yaoundé (Ekié).
In addition to that Carrefour-CFAO Retail is currently building another store at Ekoudou, in front of the Multi-purpose Sports Complex in Yaoundé.
According to the executive, the Carrefour’s PlaYce superstore is being constructed but completion has delayed due to marshy ground.
The super store is planned to be ready in first quarter of 2021 and it is said it will be four to five times larger than the Ekié mall store.
With the launch of the PlaYce superstore, Carrefour and CFAO Retail will complete their first phase of their expansion in Cameroon with an investment of about XAF80 billion (US$134m).
“We have started looking into other towns. In four or five years, we could open new supermarkets outside Douala and Yaoundé,” says Luc Demez.
The first Carrefour store in Cameroon was opened in December 5, 2017 at Bonamoussadi, Douala.
