Since the beginning of this year, there have been constant reports about Carrefour's restricted shopping card usage and consecutive store closures. Meanwhile, the question of who will take over the closed Carrefour stores has drawn industry attention. On September 26, Biyoute's Shenyang Tiexi Longemont store opened, notably at the former site of Carrefour Longemont Metropolis store. Also, Biyoute's Benxi Hualian Xincheng store will open on September 28, marking the first store under the strategic cooperation between Biyoute and Benxi Hualian. A Biyoute official revealed to the author that since the beginning of this year, Biyoute has taken over multiple former Carrefour sites and opened new stores. Currently, five new stores have opened, and several others have been signed. It is expected that by the end of this year, the number of new stores opened by Biyoute at former Carrefour sites will reach 12. Former Giant Forced to 'Slim Down' Carrefour has been in the Chinese market for 28 years and was once a benchmark for physical supermarkets. However, in the past two years, its situation has been difficult. Since the end of last year, Carrefour has been exposed to negative news such as拖欠 supplier payments and difficulties in redeeming shopping cards. In early February, at an internal meeting, Zhang Kui, Executive President of Carrefour China, made the bold statement of "working hard for 50 days to create a new situation." In fact, news of Carrefour store closures continued. In response, Suning.com stated that its operational plan for Carrefour China has further determined the future development tone of "slimming down and seeking change," requiring loss-making regions to firmly close stores and exit, while reducing operational costs; retaining stores should reduce business area, increase integration with the electronics business, and accelerate the recruitment of community lifestyle businesses; regional operations must leverage initiative and implement diversified supply chain cooperation models to improve capital turnover efficiency. Suning.com's semi-annual report showed that in the first half of the year, Carrefour China's net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 1.293 billion yuan. At the same time, Carrefour China is also accelerating its slimming plan. In the first half of 2023, Carrefour China closed 106 stores and opened no new stores. As of June 30, 2023, Carrefour China had only 41 stores left. Data shows that among the 106 stores closed by Carrefour China in the first half of the year, except for one in the Northwest region, the number of closures in East China, Central China, South China, North China, Southwest, and Northeast regions were all in double digits, and most of the closed stores were in first-tier markets. In the second half of the year, Carrefour continued to close stores. On July 17 this year, the last Carrefour store in Xinjiang, Nanhu Carrefour, ceased operations; in August, Harbin Carrefour closed its last store and exited the Harbin market; on August 25, Carrefour's Guangzhou Xinshi store posted a notice of closure, and all Carrefour stores in Guangzhou and Shenzhen were closed; in September, Carrefour's Beijing Siyuanqiao store was fenced off and no longer accepted customers, marking the closure of the last Carrefour in Beijing. Regional Retailers Take Over Some exit, some enter. Currently, Hema has taken over two Carrefour stores in Beijing, and Jiajiayue has taken over one Carrefour store in Qingdao. In the Northeast region, Carrefour has successively lost major city markets such as Shenyang and Harbin, with Biyoute taking over several of these stores. It is understood that there are currently five Biyoute stores opened at former Carrefour sites: Biyoute Dalian Yihecheng store, Shenyang Bailian store, Shenyang Xingmore store, Shenyang Tiexi Longemont store, and Harbin Xinyang Road store. In addition, Biyoute has also signed agreements for five former Carrefour stores: Shenyang Jixiang store, Shenyang Dadong Longemont store, Harbin Guozhan store, Harbin Taipingqiao store, and Harbin Lesong store. New stores are being prepared and will open before the end of the year. It is worth noting that for the Carrefour stores it took over, Biyoute did not simply reopen them after renovation. Instead, it injected its own genes, refining the large stores, using a reasonable portion of the area for supermarket sales, re-planning the store layout, and using the remaining space for commercial leasing, introducing more business formats to revitalize the surrounding business district. Based on the current new stores, good results have been achieved. On July 7, Biyoute Dalian Yihecheng store opened, the first Carrefour store taken over by Biyoute. In the first 25 days after opening, sales reached over 25 million yuan, averaging over 1 million yuan per day. The newly opened Biyoute Shenyang Tiexi Longemont store is the fifth Carrefour store taken over by Biyoute. Located on the basement level of Longemont Shopping Center in Tiexi District, covering 4,000 square meters, on the opening day, it attracted nearly 15,000 customers and sales exceeded 1.4 million yuan. What impact will Biyoute's takeover of Carrefour stores have? In this regard, Liu Wenliang, Director of the Brand Culture Department of Biyoute Commercial Group, said: Carrefour's withdrawal is an opportunity, but Biyoute's courage to seize the opportunity is a reflection of its business capabilities, including talent pipeline, capital accumulation, and brand reputation. In his view, the operating results of the stores taken over so far have been very good. On one hand, this will boost our operational confidence and improve profitability; on the other hand, it will strongly promote the group's ongoing "third entrepreneurship." Northeasterners' Family Purchasing Agent Biyoute started in Hegang, Heilongjiang, founded in 1996, formerly known as Baimeisheng Cosmetics Store. It opened its first supermarket in 2002, opened its first store in the main urban area of Harbin in 2017 and moved its headquarters to Harbin, expanded to Liaoning Province in 2019, and moved its group headquarters to Shenyang in 2021, targeting the entire Northeast market. In 2021, after moving its headquarters to Shenyang, Biyoute launched its "third entrepreneurship" after Hegang and Harbin, positioning its strategic development goals in the "Shenyang" and "Dalian" business districts, which are economically strong and promising in the Northeast. In terms of operations, Biyoute has professional product management capabilities accumulated over many years, committed to being the "family purchasing agent for Northeasterners." Its fresh products are 95% sourced from bases, with procurement not only covering provinces and cities across the country but also having long-term stationed procurement personnel in Laos, Vietnam, and other countries. In terms of digitalization, while doing well in physical stores, Biyoute actively embraces the internet, establishing an e-commerce department and opening online sales channels. In the past five years, Biyoute has achieved an average annual sales growth of 20%, becoming a startup miracle on the black land, successfully entering the top 100 Chinese supermarket chains, ranking 13th among the top 100 private enterprises in Heilongjiang Province. In the "2022 China Supermarket TOP100" list released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, Biyoute ranked 34th with sales exceeding 4.5 billion yuan, making it an outstanding representative of supermarket chains in the Northeast region. In recent years, Biyoute has developed rapidly. Currently, Biyoute has over 60 stores, covering cities such as Hegang, Harbin and surrounding areas in Heilongjiang Province, and Shenyang, Dalian in Liaoning Province. It is expected that by the end of this year, the number of new stores opened throughout the year will reach 20, and annual sales are expected to exceed 5 billion yuan. According to Liu Wenliang, although Biyoute has opened many stores this year, it is not blind expansion. Biyoute has always attached great importance to the quality of new stores. All stores opened have undergone extensive investigation and careful consideration, and the operating performance of the opened stores is very good. With strong market competitiveness and excellent management models, Biyoute is strengthening its core competitiveness, exploring new paths, and moving towards the goal of becoming the "Supermarket King of the Northeast." Final Thoughts In the overall decline of traditional hypermarkets, Carrefour has been hit harder by poor management and capital injection difficulties, gradually falling into a "store closure wave," and its former glory is hard to reproduce. Carrefour carries the memory of an era, and the current situation is regrettable. However, the troubled traditional foreign-funded supermarkets are not just Carrefour. In contrast, China's retail industry, driven by new retail, new models, and new formats, is undergoing disruption and reshaping. Regional retail enterprises represented by Biyoute have shown a vibrant side, accelerating expansion and growing against the trend.