Minister said he will “give the fuck up” for France; French group is the largest private employer in Brazil
Asked about the speech of Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) about France, the executive director of Carrefour Brasil, Stéphane Maquaire, said that the French retailer still believes in its growth potential in the country and that one sentence will not change that. At an event with a businessman in Brasília on August 9, Guedes said that France is irrelevant to Brazil and that he will “call the fuck” for the European country.
“With the relevance we have, we can’t do anything because a person said something”, said the company’s CEO in an interview with the newspaper The state of Sao Paulo published this Wednesday (17.Aug.2022).
“We will continue to invest in the country through the opening of stores, growth in digital. That’s all that Carrefour France has for Brazil. The gates are open.”
On the occasion of the Brazilian minister’s speech, Guedes complained about French criticism about the fires in the Amazon and the commercial relationship between the countries.
“Our trade with you [França] was $2 billion at the beginning of the century. With China, it was US$ 2 billion as well. Today we trade with you US$ 7 billion. And we trade with China US$ 120 billion”, said the minister.
Carrefour has been in Brazil for 47 years. After the purchase of Grupo Big for R$7.5 billion in March 2021, the company became the largest private employer in the country. Today, it has 150,000 employees.
According to Maquaire, the company intends to remain and expand in Brazil, regardless of who wins the October presidential elections. “We will continue to serve our customers, whatever the decision of the Brazilian people.”, he stated.
Carrefour wants to invest around BRL 2 billion in the country in 2023 and open 20 Atacadão stores, in addition to Carrefour Express units (smaller stores in neighborhoods with high traffic). It also works to expand online sales.
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