Groupe Casino
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Casino Group or Casino Guichard-Perrachon is a French mass-market retail group. It was founded on 2 August 1898 by Geoffroy Guichard under the corporate name Guichard-Perrachon & Co. Casino Group is the source of many innovations, such as the first distributor's brand in 1901, the first self-service store in 1948, or even the display of a sell-by date on consumer products in 1959. Casino Group operates across all food and non-food formats: supermarkets, convenience stores,
discount store Discount stores offer a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down costs. Types (Uni ...
s, and
wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...
stores. Casino Group owns other brands such as
Monoprix Monoprix S.A. () is a major French retail chain with its headquarters in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, near Paris. The company's stores combine food retailing with fashion, beauty and home products. History The company was founded in 19 ...
,
Franprix Franprix is a French grocery store chain of the Groupe Casino, headquartered in Paris. History The Franprix brand was created in 1958 by Jean Baud,. son of grocers from Choisy-le-Roi. Franprix consists of convenience stores under 500 m2, concent ...
,
Cdiscount Cdiscount is a French e-commerce platform, ranking as the third largest in the country after Amazon.fr and Veepee.fr. The platform offers a wide range of products, including electronics, household appliances, and food. In 2013, Cdiscount held ...
,
Vival Casino Group or Casino Guichard-Perrachon is a French mass-market retail group. It was founded on 2 August 1898 by Geoffroy Guichard under the corporate name Guichard-Perrachon & Co. Casino Group is the source of many innovations, such as the ...
, and Le Petit Casino. As of 2017 Casino Group, managed by
Jean-Charles Naouri Jean-Charles Naouri (born 8 March 1949) is a French businessman. He is chairman, chief executive officer and controlling shareholder of Groupe Casino. Education Naouri received his Baccalauréat degree at only 15 years old. He then studied ...
, was quoted on the
Paris Stock Exchange Euronext Paris, formerly known as the Paris Bourse (), is a regulated securities trading venue in France. It is Europe's second largest stock exchange by market capitalization, behind the London Stock Exchange, as of December 2023. As of 2022, th ...
and had total revenue of €37.8 billion. As of November 2021, the group has a market capitalization of approximately €2.35 billion. Between June 2023 and October 2024, in the grip of a financial crisis linked to its debt, the group closed or sold all of its Casino supermarkets and Géant hypermarkets in France to competitors. During this crisis, Casino and Géant brands are also gradually being replaced by competitors in various countries. The group employs 28,200 people in April 2024. In its results for the first half of 2024, the Casino group announced that the
Leader Price Leader Price, (full name: ''Société S.A. Leader Price Holding''), was a French discount store chain of the Groupe Casino, headquartered in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inh ...
franchise activities are part of the discontinued operations. From 2024 a consortium lead by Daniel Kretinsky will own and control 53.7% of Casino's share capital.


History


Casino's genesis (1892–1898)

Geoffroy Guichard was born on 27 July 1867 in
Feurs Feurs (; ) is a commune in the department of Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. History Antiquity The city was founded by the Romans. The name ''Feurs'' is a contraction of ''Forum Segusiavorum'', in reference to the forum of the Gallo-Ro ...
, in the
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (; AURA) or ; or ; . is a Regions of France, region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. The new region came into e ...
region. His parents were the owners of a retail grocery business in
Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...
. In 1889, he married Antonia Perrachon and became a partner with Paul Perrachon, his cousin-in-law, who had been the owner of a shop in the region for around ten years. Geoffroy Guichard became the sole business owner in 1892. The store, located rue des Jardins, was originally the Lyrical Casino of Saint-Étienne. Closed in the 1850s, the Lyrical Casino was transformed into a retail grocery store in the 1860s. Geoffroy Guichard grew the grocery store to turn it into a general food store, based on the Felix Potin model. In April 1898, due to the success of the concept, Geoffroy Guichard opened the first branch in
Veauche Veauche (; ) is a commune in the Loire department in central France. It is from Saint-Etienne and is bordered on the west by the Loire River. Population See also *Communes of the Loire department The following is a list of the 320 com ...
, in Loire.


The beginnings of Casino (1898–1904)

On 2 August 1898, Geoffroy Guichard founded with his father-in-law « la Société des Magasins du Casino » and « Établissements économiques d’alimentation under the corporate name Guichard-Perrachon & Co. In total, 77 people subscribed to the capital of the new company. The Guichard spouses owned 35% of the company's capital (limited by shares). As from 1898, warehouses and factories were built in Saint-Étienne. Damaged by a fire in 1900, they were rebuilt reaching a total surface of 16 000 m². In the factories, Casino baked bread, produced oil and chocolate, roasted coffee, distilled and produced homemade liquors. An important wine business was also developed. Nearly 40 branches were opened in 1899. In September 1904, the 100th branch was opened in
Lamastre Lamastre (; ) is a commune in the Ardèche department in southern France. It lies on the river Doux. The Chemin de fer du Vivarais, a metre-gauge tourist railway, connects Lamastre with Tournon-sur-Rhône. Population See also *Communes o ...
in Ardèche and in July 1905, the 21st concession.


The development of social action (1904–1923)

In the first quarter of the 20th century, the company developed a social action plan dedicated to its employees, with, in 1904, the launch of an
insurance fund Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...
, the creation of a
health service Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is deliver ...
in 1905, benefits for large families and a birth premium in 1910 or even child benefits and profit sharing for all employees as from 1916. In 1912, Casino created the Sports branch Casino employees’ Social Club, a sports organization in accordance with its sports corporatism policy. The Social club opened its football section in July 1919 alongside other disciplines such as athletics or basketball. More commonly referred to as AS Casino, the Social club became "l’Association Sportive Stéphanoise" in 1927 then "l’Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne" in 1933. In 1923, in celebration of its 25th anniversary, Casino put in place a
pension fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides pension, retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the ...
which ensured the security of employees leaving the company. The Casino share was quoted on the Stock Exchange as from 1910.


Industrial development after WWI (1920–1940)

As from 1920, Casino continued to grow by creating factories and warehouses. In 1929, the company counted nearly 1000 branches and over 500 outlets. At that time, Casino was present across 28 districts. In 1923, Geoffroy Guichard became administrator of « L’Épargne de Toulouse », which had similar operations to Casino's with around 300 branches located in the South-West of France. Geoffroy Guichard took permanent control of the company in 1925. Geoffroy Guichard announced the transfer of the company to his children during the general meeting of October 1929. At that time, Casino counted around 2000 employees. After the death of Geoffroy Guichard in May 1940, Mario Guichard became President of the executive board. He was surrounded by his brothers Jean, Georges, Paul et Pierre Guichard, and his brother-in-law François Kemlin. In June 1941, François Kemlin created a network of clandestine activities. It benefited from important material resources made available by the company. These actions ranged from making packages/parcels and sending letters to creating files to enable the escape of War prisoners. Bombings during the War damaged many factories, warehouses and offices. Some even had to close down.


The Great innovations (1940–1950)

In 1947, Pierre Guichard took a trip to North America to observe growing trends. He discovered the self-service store concept. A year later, Casino opened its first self-service store in Saint-Étienne. Over a period of 10 years, 500 branches adopted this new sales principle. In 1950, one of the first cooling systems was put in place in distribution. There again, it was a type of innovation observed in the US. Gradually, warehouses were equipped with cooling chambers and refrigerated coolers. In 1959, Casino was the first distributor to display a sell-by date on its products. This was made compulsory in December 1984 with the use-by date. Already in 1928, the Group had put in place "calendar displays" on product packaging, as a quality guarantee.


The development of new formats (1950–1990)

In 1957, Casino opened its first supermarket in
Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionGrenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...
. A few months later, four new stores opened in Nice,
Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...
,
Firminy Firminy (; ) is a commune in the Loire department in central France. It lies on the river Ondaine, 13 km southwest of Saint-Étienne by rail. History The ancient name of the town was ''Firminiaco'' or ''Firminiacus'' (lit. "place of Fir ...
and
Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
. The first two Paris supermarkets opened in 1970 in Saint-Denis and Bagneux. In March 1970, the first Géant Casino hypermarket opened its doors in Marseille. It was then the biggest store in France with a surface of 16000 m2. The shopping mall was made of 41 independent businesses and a Casino cafeteria. The SOMABRI company (SOciété des Magasins de BRIcolage/the company of DIY stores) was created in 1978 to enable Casino Group to be present on the DIY market. It opened its first two stores in 1978 in Toulouse Fenouillet and in Clermont le Brézet. Casino transferred its majority ownership to Castorama in October 1989.


The Internationalization of Casino Group (1976–1999)

In 1976, the internationalization of Casino Group started in the United States with the creation of Casino USA to operate French cafeterias in the USA. Restaurants were opened in
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...
, then in
Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...
,
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, Westwood Village, Costa Mesa, and
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
in California. Many convenience businesses also opened their doors under the name Le Petit Casino. The Group took over the chain Thriftymart Inc stores which then became Smart & Final Iris. Back then, the company owned around 90 retail outlets, all self-service, and implanted mainly in California. The internationalization of Casino Group then accelerated until the end of the 1990s with its development across South America. In March 1996, Casino Group signed a partnership agreement with Dairy Farm International, one of the biggest groups of supermarkets in Asia. A joint company was then created for the development of hypermarkets in the Asian South-East and particularly in Taïwan where a first hypermarket opened in 1998. In 1999, Casino Group bought into the capital of Distribution Groups GPA and Grupo Éxito in Brazil and in
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
.


The Merger between Casino Group and Rallye Group (1985–1991)

In April 1985, Casino Group purchased the Company Cedis of
Besançon Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland. Capi ...
, which helped the Group develop in the East of France. In April 1990, Casino took over the Compagnie Française d’Afrique Occidentale, La Ruche Méridionale d’
Agen Agen (, , ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne, southeast of Bordeaux. In 2021, the commune had a population of 32,485. Geography The city of Agen l ...
and SODIM and strengthened its implantation in the South of France. In October 1992, Casino Group, then managed by Antoine Guichard (grandson of Geoffroy Guichard), merged with the Rallye Group owned by Jean-Charles Naouri. Rallye brought Casino all of its distribution and catering activities. The Group was then present all over the French territory. At the end of this operation, Rallye owned 29% of the total capital of Casino Group. Antoine Guichard, the last family manager of Casino Group, did not want to give up the presidency of the company. The Rallye company was founded in 1945 by Jean Cam. Threatened by serious cash flow problems, it was bought back in 1991 by Jean-Charles Naouri and his investment company, Euris.


Growth in France: affiliates and partnerships (1992–1997)

To increase its presence in France, Casino Group continued its wave of acquisitions by signing many agreements with national distributors. Corse Distribution Group became affiliated with Casino in 1992. Many hypermarkets and supermarkets then became Casino stores. Between 1995 and 1996, Casino took majority ownership in the different companies of Corse Distribution, enabling the development of many new franchise names. In December 1996, Casino Group and Monoprix, branch of
Galeries Lafayette Galeries Lafayette () is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates a number of locations in France and other countries ...
, signed a partnership agreement for purchasing and logistics. Less than a year later, Casino supported Monoprix financially in the total acquisition of Prisunic's capital and became therefore, shareholder at 21.6% of the capital of this new Group. In September 1997, Casino Group took majority ownership in the Franprix and Leader Price brands and their network of 650 stores.


Major changes in Casino Group's shareholding (1997–1998)

In 1997, after many months of stock-market battle, Jean-Charles Naouri, the Guichard family and employees of the Group rejected a
hostile Hostility is seen as a form of emotionally charged aggressive behavior. In everyday speech, it is more commonly used as a synonym for anger and aggression. It appears in several psychological theories. For instance it is a facet of neuroticism ...
tender offer In corporate finance, a tender offer is a type of public takeover bid. The tender offer is a public, open offer or invitation (usually announced in a newspaper advertisement) by a prospective acquirer to all stockholders of a publicly traded corp ...
made by the Promodès distributor. Following a counter-bid, Jean-Charles Naouri became the majority shareholder of Casino Group in 1998.


Acceleration of the investment strategy (1999–2014)

Under the aegis of Jean-Charles Naouri, Casino Group developed its assets in France and internationally. In March 1997, Casino Group signed an affiliate agreement with the Uruguayan Brand Disco for the construction of a Géant Casino in
Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
. The store opened its doors in 1999. In February 1998, Casino Group took over the Argentine Group Libertad operating 7 hypermarkets across the country. Libertad was then the third company of hypermarkets in
Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...
. In 1999, Casino subscribed to the capital of leading distribution companies in their respective countries, GPA in Brazil and Grupo Éxito in Colombia. After having strengthened its position in 2005, Casino Group became in July 2012 the sole controlling shareholder of GPA, no 1 in distribution and no 2 in e-business in Brazil. In 2000, Casino Group acquired Monoprix (50% of it), Franprix, Leader Price and Cdiscount. Activities grew again with the creation of Banque Casino in 2001 as well as property management company Mercialys, managing all the shopping malls owned by Casino. These assets represented 150 shopping malls on hypermarket and supermarket sites, as well as the premises of cafeterias owned by the Group. In 2005, Jean-Charles Naouri was appointed CEO of Casino Group. Casino inaugurated its new Head Office in Saint-Étienne, its historical stronghold, in 2007. In the same year, the Group created GreenYellow, its energy-specialised branch. Its first photovoltaic plant was connected to the electric network in 2010. In that year, Casino Group continued its growth in Asia by acquiring Thai participations in the Carrefour Group with its Big C branch. In 2011, the Charle brothers sold their
shares In financial markets, a share (sometimes referred to as stock or equity) is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation. It can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Sha ...
in the Cdiscount capital. Casino then held 99.6% of shares. In the same year, Casino Group and La Poste signed a partnership agreement. With a length of 5 years, it aimed at creating convenience food businesses in available premises, next to Post offices, in villages of under 12,000 inhabitants. In July 2012, the Group acquired 50% of shares held by Galeries Lafayette Group in Monoprix. Jean-Charles Naouri was named CEO by the Board of Directors of the Brand. The Group purchased the majority of Le Mutant stores and renamed them "Leader Price". In parallel, the Group reduced its shares in Mercialys, by around 40.2%. On 8 October 2014, the Group and Intermarché announced an agreement as regards purchases for big brand products in France. This agreement meant that the 2 Groups were purchasing leaders in France with a market share of 25.8%.


Activity refocusing (since 2015)

In February 2016, the Group announced the sale of 59% of its shares in its Big C Thai activities for 3.1 billion
Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
s. In April, the company announced the sale of
Big C Vietnam Big C Supercenter operates "hypermarkets" or " supercenters", modern retail businesses managed by Groupe Casino.It is one of the major retailers in the world, with over 200,000 employees working in more than 11,000 stores in Vietnam, Thailand, Arg ...
to Central Group for 1 Billion dollars. In December 2017, Casino Group signed an agreement with
Ocado Ocado Group plc ( ) is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It also owns a 50% share in the UK grocery retail business Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer). The company ...
to develop a technological platform with an automated warehouse in France. Announced a business partnership aiming at selling Monoprix food products to
Amazon Prime Now Prime Now, LLC is a subsidiary of Amazon that oversees its same-day grocery shopping and delivery service. The name also originated a brand, including a custom app, to distinguish the service from Amazon's other offerings, but both the branding a ...
customers. On 23 May 2019, Casino's parent company Rallye S.A., declared bankruptcy protection in an effort to maintain its high debt costs. Casino later announced that same day that they are not involved in the bankruptcy and it will not affect its operations and employees.


Debt crisis and change in shareholding (since 2021)

Over the whole of 2021, debt started to rise again, going from 3.9 billion euros to 5.9 billion. In three years, the share price has lost almost 50% of its value. In 2023, Casino announced that they have completed a deal to avoid bankruptcy. This restructuring procedure would allow for the company to cut high debt and improve recent losses to other rival supermarket corporations. At the beginning of January 2024, as part of the debt restructuring, the Casino group announced the sale of 288 stores, including 162 which will come under the Intermarché brand, 98 under the Auchan brand and 26 under the Carrefour brand. On 26 January 2024, the group sold its 34% stake in Exito to the Salvadoran group Grupo Calleja for 400 million euros. In 2024, Casino USA filed for
Chapter 15 bankruptcy Chapter 15, Title 11, United States Code is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code that deals with jurisdiction in certain bankruptcy cases. Under Chapter 15, foreign bankruptcy proceedings can be recognised by US courts and foreign re ...
.


Activities of the group


Brands

Unlike its main French competitors, Casino Group made the bet of developing a multi-brand strategy in the 1990s under the management of Jean-Charles Naouri. The Group acquired various brands; Leader Price (1997, abandoned in 2024), Vival (1999), Franprix (2007), Monoprix and Naturalia (2013)


Shareholdings

The group bought 26% of the capital in the Brazilian group ''
GPA Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as num ...
'' in 1999, before strengthening its position to 34.3% in 2005. In 2024, it reduces its stake to 22.5%.


E-business

Casino Group concentrates its e-business activity within the company
Cnova Cnova N.V. is an e-commerce company, founded in June 2014. Cnova includes Cdiscount (operating in France, Belgium, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Colombia) and Cnova Brazil (operating in Brazil). Cnova N.V. is part of Groupe Casino, a French global r ...
, created in June 2014.
Cdiscount Cdiscount is a French e-commerce platform, ranking as the third largest in the country after Amazon.fr and Veepee.fr. The platform offers a wide range of products, including electronics, household appliances, and food. In 2013, Cdiscount held ...
, branch of Casino Group, became over a few years a major
e-business Electronic business (also known as online business or e-business) is any kind of business or commercial activity that includes sharing information across the internet. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, ...
actor over the Internet in France. In November 2023, Casino Group acquired a 34% stake in Cnova for €10 million. Stakes in the company increased to 98.8% following the deal.


Real estate

The real estate activity of Casino Group is driven in France by l’Immobilière Casino (which owns the walls of its stores) and its old brand Mercialys.


Sponsorship

Casino Group created a Company Foundation which supports childhood development by fighting against the cultural exclusion of the
under-privileged Social privilege is an advantage or entitlement that benefits individuals belonging to certain groups, often to the detriment of others. Privileged groups can be advantaged based on social class, wealth, education, caste, age, height, skin color, ...
. The Casino Corporate Foundation contributes to their education by funding theatre projects. Founded in 2009, the Casino Foundation complements the other foundations of Casino Group present in France and in Latin America: the Exito Foundation in Colombia created in 1985, mainly engaged against child malnutrition, the GPA Institute which fosters youth education and their professional insertion and the Monoprix Foundation which fights against isolation in cities.


Former locations


Kuwait, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates

In 2017, the
Majid Al Futtaim Group Majid Al Futtaim Holding () is an Emirati holding company based in Dubai. The family-owned conglomerate owns and operates shopping malls, retail, and hotel establishments in the Middle East and North Africa. The firm was established by M ...
group purchased Retail Arabia, which owns the Géant stores, and replaced them with the
Carrefour Carrefour Group, S.A. (, ), is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, Essonne, Massy, France. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. By 2024, the group had 14,000 ...
and
Carrefour Market Carrefour Market is a French supermarket chain created in 2007, owned by the international retail group Carrefour, and has currently stores in France and several other countries, see below. Carrefour Market stores generally range from 1000 m2 t ...
brands.


France

On 30 November 2020, the Casino group announced the sale of 554
Leader Price Leader Price, (full name: ''Société S.A. Leader Price Holding''), was a French discount store chain of the Groupe Casino, headquartered in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inh ...
stores, out of a network of 640 stores, to
ALDI Aldi (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...
. In its results for the first half of 2024, the Casino group announced that the
Leader Price Leader Price, (full name: ''Société S.A. Leader Price Holding''), was a French discount store chain of the Groupe Casino, headquartered in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inh ...
franchise activities are part of the discontinued operations. For financial reasons, the group closed or sold all of its Casino supermarkets and Géant hypermarkets in France to competitors between June 2023 and October 2024.


Africa

In 2023,
Mercure International of Monaco Mercure may refer to: * MERCURE, an atmospheric dispersion modelling CFD code developed by Électricité de France * Mercure Hotels, a chain of hotels run by Accor * French ship ''Mercure'' (1783) * Dassault Mercure, a French airliner built in th ...
began replacing Casino and Géant brands with
Coopérative U Coopérative U (Système U before 2024) is a French symbol group retailers cooperative of independent hypermarkets and supermarkets, headquartered in the Parc Tertiaire SILIC in Rungis, France. It owns the trademarks Hyper U, Super U, U Expres ...
in Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon and Senegal.


Casino and the world of sport


Casino and sport association

Casino Group is the origin of the
AS Saint-Étienne Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), abbreviated as A.S.S.E. () and commonly known as Saint-Étienne, is a French professional football club based in Saint-Étienne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The club was founded in 1933 and competes ...
football Club, which was created in 1919. The Sports Social Club of Saint-Étienne was born more precisely as a sports section of the «Employees' Social Club of the Casino store company,» the organization created in 1912 by Casino to support its sports corporatism policy. The Social Club logically takes on board the green color of the grocery chain. A few months after the creation of the French Football Association-Federation (FFAF), the Social Club, more commonly named « AS Casino » (ASC), opened its football section in 1919, as well as other disciplines such as athletics and basketball. On 29 March 1920, under the initiative of Albert Jacquet, general secretary of the company, AS Casino became « the Social Sports Club » to respect the rules adopted by the Federation prohibiting the use of brands in the names of clubs, as well as keeping the initials. The club was then reserved for Casino employees, and the training center was located on the « Pont de l'âne » field, the property of the Group. Seven years later, under the initiative of Pierre Guichard, son of Geoffroy Guichard who had become president of the club after MM. Godot and Jean Moulin, the Social Sports Club merged with the University Forez Stadium within the « Stéphanoise Sports Association » (SSA), which kept of course the green colour of the ASC. In 1930, the French Federation voted for the adoption of professionalism in France. It became necessary for the SSA, whose managers were ambitious, to have its own stadium. The founder of Casino Group purchased a large field and gave it to the club. A membership offered to « friends » of the club helped gather the necessary funds to build the first facilities, later named
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard Stade Geoffroy-Guichard () is a multi-purpose stadium in Saint-Étienne, France. It is used primarily for football matches, and tournaments such as the UEFA Euro 1984 and 2016, the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup. It i ...
.


Cyclism

In 1996, Casino Group became the main sponsor of the Chazal cycling team (currently
AG2R Citroën Team A&G, AG, Ag or ag may refer to Businesses and organizations * A&G Railroad (former reporting mark AG) * Action Group (Nigeria), a political party during the Nigerian First Republic * Aktiengesellschaft, a German type of corporation * Assemblie ...
). The team, therefore, took the name « Petit Casino – C'est votre équipe ». In the following year, Casino increased its funding and AG2R Provident Insurance became the second sponsor. The team doubled its budget, which went to 25 million
Franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century ...
s, and took the name "Casino-AG2R Prévoyance" from 1997 to 1999. Casino's commitment finished at the end of the 1999 season. Over 3 years, the team also won 3 stages of the Tour de France, one stage of the
Tour of Spain Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...
, 3 major classics and many national championships. It counted athletes such as Alexandre Vinokourov, Benoît Salmon or even
Jaan Kirsipuu Jaan Kirsipuu (born 17 July 1969) is an Estonian former road bicycle racer, who currently works as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team . He spent the majority of his career riding under the management of Vincent Lavenu, initially joini ...
. The Casino Green is the traditional colour of Casino Group. It was the colour of the blinds in the former lyrical Casino, which was situated rue des Jardins in Saint-Etienne.


Shareholding

Jean-Charles Naouri was the majority shareholder of Casino Group since 1992 via his Rallye SA company. From 2024 a consortium lead by Daniel Kretinsky will own and control 53.7% of Casino's share capital.


Financial highlights

Net business volume includes all revenue from consolidated companies, associates and franchisees, on a 100% basis.


Share information

*Groupe Casino shares are listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris market (Compartment A) ISIN: FR0000125585 *Par value: €1.53 per share *Majority shareholders at end-2012 (voting rights):
Free float In the context of stock markets, the public float or free float represents the portion of Share (finance), shares of a corporation that are in the hands of public investors as opposed to locked-in shares held by promoters, company officers, control ...
: 38.6%; Groupe Rallye 59.3%; employees 2.1%.


Controversies


Kepler Cheuvreux

In August 2020, following anonymous threats and intimidations in Germany, the analyst
stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...
, responsible for monitoring food retail trade from
Kepler Cheuvreux Kepler Cheuvreux is an independent European financial services company providing research, execution, advisory, and asset management services. History 1997: origins Kepler Capital Markets was founded in 1997 under the name Julius Baer Broke ...
, was forced to stop following Casino group and the German distribution brand
Metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...
. The analyst had advised Kepler Cheuvreux's client investors to "hold" Metro's stock and to "reduce" their positions on Casino. Both groups have the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky as a
minority Minority may refer to: Politics * Minority government, formed when a political party does not have a majority of overall seats in parliament * Minority leader, in American politics, the floor leader of the second largest caucus in a legislative b ...
shareholder. He, along with the Casino group, condemned the threats addressed to the analyst. Neither Kepler Cheuvreux nor the analyst have commented on this matter. An investigation is currently underway by the
German police German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ger ...
, while the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) has declared to "regret" this situation. The financial watchdog also indicated having informed the public prosecutor.


Duty of Vigilance Law

In March 2020, eleven NGOs filed a lawsuit against the Casino group in French courts due to its sales in South America of products based on beef, allegedly from farms linked to illegal deforestation in the Amazon. The NGOs claim to base their case on the duty of vigilance law....


See also

*
Carrefour Carrefour Group, S.A. (, ), is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, Essonne, Massy, France. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. By 2024, the group had 14,000 ...
*
Companies of France A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether natural, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific ...
*
European Retail Round Table The European Retail Round Table (ERRT) was a European organisation which represented companies from the European retail sector. Together the members employed about 2.3 million people and had a turnover of €400 billion. In 2019, the ERRT disban ...
*
List of companies of France France is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in western Europe, as well as Overseas France, several overseas regions and territories. A member of the Group of Seven, Group of 7 (formerly G8) leading industrialised countries ...
*
List of hypermarkets This is a list of hypermarket chains sorted alphabetically by continent and country. A hypermarket is a superstore carrying a wide range of products under one roof, and may aim to allow customers to satisfy all their shopping needs in one trip ...
*
Sherpa (brand) Sherpa is a cooperative of retailers and a brand in the food distribution sector in France, owned by the Coréma company, a subsidiary of the cooperative. It operates through a network of convenience stores and supermarkets, primarily located in ...


References


External links

*
Casino Guichard Perrachon Sa
Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately-held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Ze ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casino Supermarkets of France Retail companies of France Retail companies established in 1898 Companies that have filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy Multinational companies headquartered in France French brands Companies listed on Euronext Paris 1898 establishments in France