Romanian products made under the Carrefour brand, such as telemea (type of cheese), zacuscă (vegetables mix), cozonac (sweet bread) and honey, might be sold in the group’s hypermarkets in Italy, where a large Romanian community exists.

“We started discussing with our colleagues in Italy a month ago to bring Romanian products to the shelves of Carrefour hypermarkets in Italy. They noticed that many Romanians living in Italy are shopping at Carrefour,” said Vlad Ardeleanu, Carrefour Romania’s commercial manager, quoted by local Zf.ro.

Ardeleanu also added that the company’s management will analyze in which hypermarkets products will be added, based on the areas in Italy where most Romanians live. Moreover, Carrefour is also considering selling Romanian products in the company’s hypermarkets in Spain, which also has a large Romanian ex-pat community.

Over 90 percent of the Carrefour brand products sold in the group’s hypermarkets in Romania are manufactured in locally. In 2012, Carrefour's own label products registered a year-on-year increase of 10 percent.

“Carrefour’s strategy for 2013 mainly focuses on developing partnerships with local traders and producers,” said Francois Melchior De Polignac, Carrefour Romania’s general manager .

Carrefour Romania is part of the Carrefour Group, currently present in 33 countries with a total of 9,900 stores. Carrefour runs a total of 116 stores in Romania, namely 24 hypermarkets, 68 supermarkets and 24 Carrefour Express shops.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com