Carrefour: seven hypermarkets to be franchised to Marché Frais

Carrefour is moving ahead with plans to turn ten hypermarkets into fresh food and discount specialists. Seven are to be operated under franchise by the Marché Frais group, founded by the Quattrucci family. In Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, in the Val-d’Oise department near Paris, work at the first site is putting this element of the Carrefour 2030 plan into practice.

Work at Montigny-lès-Cormeilles to continue until 2027

The Carrefour hypermarket in Montigny-lès-Cormeilles is the first site in this conversion programme. It covers 10,300 m². According to information reported by Olivier Dauvers, who visited the site and published photographs on 19 October 2026, work will not be completed before spring 2027.

The Quattrucci family took over the store in November 2025. It currently operates it under a lease-management arrangement, known in France as location-gérance: it leases the operating business from Carrefour. This current arrangement should be distinguished from the programme’s stated aim of having seven hypermarkets operated under franchise by the Marché Frais group.

The timetable also needs to be read carefully. Spring 2027 is the earliest indicated completion date for work at Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, not for all ten conversions. Carrefour has set a 2030 deadline for the wider programme.

Seven franchised stores within a ten-store conversion programme

Unveiled on 18 February 2026, the Carrefour 2030 strategic plan sets out the conversion of ten hypermarkets into fresh food and discount specialists, using a format “inspired by Marché Frais by Carrefour”. The official press release specifies that seven will be operated under franchise by the Marché Frais group.

For the franchise sector, the significance of this announcement lies in the role given to an established operator. The project goes beyond changes to the product range: it combines the conversion of existing large-format stores with their operation by a named partner.

If the seven stores are added to the Quattrucci family’s existing portfolio, its network would grow from twelve to nineteen stores. That expansion remains dependent on the programme being implemented; it is not an existing estate. Equally, the seven stores to be entrusted to Marché Frais should not be confused with the ten hypermarkets covered by Carrefour’s overall plans.

A partnership that predates the Carrefour 2030 plan

The relationship between the two groups began before this latest project. The Quattrucci family’s twelve stores, a mix of hypermarkets and supermarkets, are located in Île-de-France, the Paris region, and in Beauvais, in the Oise department.

They have traded under the Marché Frais by Carrefour banner since 1 July 2024. That was the date a supply and brand licensing agreement with Carrefour came into effect, following its coverage by trade publication LSA on 6 May 2024.

This sequence shows how the project has developed: a commercial and branding agreement came before the takeover of the Montigny-lès-Cormeilles store, followed by the announcement of the conversion programme running to 2030. It also highlights that the contractual arrangements mentioned are not interchangeable. The 2024 agreement covers supply and brand licensing; the Val-d’Oise store is currently operated under lease-management; and the strategic plan provides for seven franchised operations.

Fresh food at the heart of a wider programme

These hypermarket conversions form part of a strategy that places greater emphasis on fresh food. Carrefour wants fruit and vegetables to feature in one in two shopping baskets by 2030, compared with 41% in 2025. This is a group-wide target, not a result already achieved by the converted stores.

Carrefour also plans to spend nearly €200 million a year modernising its hypermarkets in France. This announced funding covers the modernisation of its French hypermarket estate, so it should not be presented as a budget earmarked for the ten Marché Frais-inspired conversions.

Alongside this, the retailer plans to hand over forty Market supermarkets to franchisees each year. This is separate from the hypermarket project, as is the target in its plan for fifteen hypermarkets to move to lease-management in 2026.

Key takeaway for prospective franchisees: this project is worth following both for its retail concept and for its operating arrangements. Before assessing a potential takeover, distinguish between the timetable for the works, the store’s contractual status and the targets announced for the network.