Sweden at Carrefour

During a two-day agenda, a total of 29 Swedish companies, 60 participants, participated in this unique collaboration with Carrefour, the second biggest retailer in the world (1600 stores in France and more than 5000 stores globally)

On the 6th of December a visit was organized at one of Carrefour stores in central Paris together with Managers from Carrefour and representatives from the STC. Afterwards, a briefing, a fast track course in French business culture and negotiation technique and a kick-off cocktail were held at the residence of the Swedish ambassador to France.

The sourcing day, on the 7th of December, was introduced by Head purchasing manager of Carrefour, Mr. Sylvain Ferry and the Swedish Ambassador to France, Mr. Gunnar Lund in presence of 110 participants. After the introduction, the Swedish companies had individual meetings with purchasing managers for their specific category. In total 46 meetings were performed with 30 purchasing managers from Carrefour.

Carrefour as well as the Swedish participants expressed a very positive view of the structure and coordination of the project and we have also received great response from the participants after the event.
The companies have now initiated contact with the purchasing managers and some of them will participate in tenders in Dec-Jan 2012. Hopefully these initial contacts and tenders will lead to business and presence of Swedish food and non-food products on Carrefour’s shelves in a near future!

For more information: Marie Eck, Project Manager, Swedish Trade Council Paris
E-mail: marie.eck@swedishtrade.se Tel: +33 (0)1 53 40 85 79