Auchan

Auchan SA is an international retail group and multinational corporation headquartered in Lille, France.

Auchan has branches in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Morocco, China and Taiwan. It also entered the Romanian market in 2006, with the first hypermarket in Bucharest set to open soon.

Today, Auchan is one of the world's principal distribution groups . It is present in 11 countries (mentioned above) and employs 170,000 employees.

As of 26 October 2005, Auchan has 356 hypermarkets, 646 supermarkets, 2027 small shops in the world but also 116 hypermarkets in France.

Contents

1 Slogan
2 Auchan's failed ventures
3 Statistics
4 Auchan's Brands
5 Auchan banners
6 See also
7 External links

Slogan

The slogan of the company is La Vie, La Vraie, which translates into English as "the life, the truth". This is the basic principle of Auchan which is to deliver a product whose origin is not hidden and can make life easier for the client. It proves that a company can help the customer and be an environmentally-conscious company.

Auchan's failed ventures

Auchan opened its first hypermarket in the United States in 1988 in Houston off the Sam Houston Tollway between Beechnut and Bissonnet streets. A second United States location was opened in 2000, also in Houston, in a building just off the South Loop, which had formerly housed a Target department store.

Right before Auchan had decided on a second location, there were 55 checkout stands which makes it the only store with the maximum number of checkout stands.

Both locations were closed by March 2003, leaving Auchan with no presence in the United States' market.

The former Auchan off the Sam Houston Tollway now houses a Food Town supermarket and a furniture store, and Soth Loop location was converted to a FEMA disaster recovery center in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita after September 2005.

Auchan opened a number of stores in Mexico; the first of these opened in Mexico City in 1997 and eventually grew to five stores. Faced with stiff competition from Wal-Mart, as well as local superstore chains Gigante and Comercial Mexicana, as well as french rival Carrefour (who also sold their stores and left the country in March 2005) , Auchan decided to sell their stores to Comercial Mexicana and withdrew from Mexico in early 2005.

Auchan have also ventured into Argentina and withdrawn.

Statistics

France: 116 hypermarkets, 276 Supermarkets (ATAC), and 120 shopping centres (centre commercial).
Spain: 45 Alcampo hypermarkets, 124 supermarkets.
Portugal: 17 hypermarkets under Jumbo/Pao de Açúcar banners.
Italy: 41 hypermarkets (40 Auchan ,1 Finiper), 215 supermarkets (Sma and cityper).
Luxembourg: 1 hypermarket.
Poland: 19 hypermarkets, 13 supermarkets (Elea).
Hungary: 10 hypermarkets (1 of which is still under construction).
Russia: 6 hypermarkets.
Morocco: 11 hypermarkets under Marjane tag and 18 supermarkets under Acima banner.
China:13 hypermarkets.
Taiwan: 19 hypermarkets under the RT Mart banner.

Auchan's Brands

Le Moins Cher-Economy Range similar to Smartprice (ASDA) or Value (Tesco)
Les Produits Auchan-Own brand of products
Rik et Rok- Products designed for Children (this is also a "club" for children)
Les Produits Regionales- Regional Products such as Breton biscuits
Les grandes marques (not strictly a brand name-all of the major companies e.g. Kellogs)

Auchan banners

France : Auchan, ATAC, Auchan Direct, Voyage Auchan, Banque Accord.
China : Auchan.
Spain : Alcampo, Sabeco, Immochan Espagne, accordfin.
Hungary : Auchan, Accord Magyarország.
Italy : Auchan, smasupermercati, Cityper, Gallerie Auchan, iovorrei, cartaccord.
Luxembourg : Auchan.
Morocco : Acima, Marjane.
Poland : Auchan, Elea, Accord Finance, Immochan.
Portugal : Jumbo, Pao de Açúcar, Rik e Rok, crediplus.
Russia : Ашан.
A Taiwan : RT Mart, Apic , Save and Safe.
On the Internet : Auchandirect, voyagesauchan.com

External links

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