KUALA LUMPUR: Carrefour Malaysia will open three additional hypermarkets in the Klang Valley by end-January, Marketing and Communications director for Malaysia and Singapore Low Ngai Yuen said.“This will bring the total number of Carrefour hypermarkets operating in West Malaysia to 22 by the end of this month,” Low said.
Carrefour has no presence in East Malaysia and was now negotiating with several parties in Sabah and Sarawak to set up its hypermarkets there.
“Not stopping in East Malaysia, we are also looking at opportunities to open hypermarkets in Kelantan and Terengganu where we have no presence yet,” Low told Bernama after the launch of Carrefour’s nationwide Chinese New Year campaign here yesterday.
Carrefour Malaysia’s chief executive officer Guillaume de Colonges was recently reported as saying that the company aimed to double the number of hypermarkets in Malaysia to 40 by 2012.
He said Carrefour was positioning itself to emerge as the top foreign hypermarket operator in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, when asked about the market penetration of Malaysia’s halal products to other regional markets, Low said Malaysia was respected, globally, as a leading halal products manufacturer.
“We have been bringing small-and-medium entrepreneurs, especially those involved in the halal market, to participate in international food fairs to help promote Malaysian halal products abroad.
“In 2008, we brought them to the International Paris Food Fair and Dubai and Singapore to learn new things while securing more markets for halal products in these countries,” she added.
Low said the French halal market was huge and Carrefour provided exclusive halal corners in all their stores in France.
She added Carrefour Singapore also provided halal corners in two of their stores due to demand for these products in the republic.
Carrefour, is the world’s number two most successful retailer with more than 15,430 stores in 31 countries globally. — Bernama