Casino Guichard-Perrachon S.A. (Groupe Casino) history, profile and history video
Casino Guichard-Perrachon S.A., known as Groupe Casino (Casino Group), is a food retailer headquartered in Saint-Etienne, France.
HISTORY
The Casino Group’s origins date back to 1898 when Geoffroy Guichard founded Société des Magasins du Casino et Établissements Économiques d’Alimentation.
Before that, Geoffroy Guichard became the sole owner of the retail grocery business owned by the Perrachon family in 1892. The establishment situated rue des Jardins was originally the Lyrical Casino of Saint-Étienne. It was closed because of questionable morals and became a retail grocery business in 1860, keeping its original name: “Casino”.
In order to protect itself from competition and promote products manufactured in its factories, the Casino brand was created in 1901 and registered in 1904.
In 1948, the first self-service store was inaugurated in Saint-Étienne.
In 1960, the first supermarket was opened in Grenoble.
In 1970, the first Géant Casino hypermarket was opened in Marseille, and was one of the biggest stores in France. The shopping mall counted 41 independent businesses and a Casino cafeteria.
In 1992, Casino Group merged with the Rallye Group. The network of Rallye stores was composed of 49 Hyper Rallye, 232 supermarkets Rallye Super, 29 Auto-Service, 70 Marest cafeterias, and 6 warehouses.
In 1996, Casino Group became a shareholder of Monoprix-Prisunic.
In 1997, Franprix and Leader Price were acquired.
In 1997, Casino took over the SPAR brand in France.
In 1998, Casino acquired the Vival convenience store. It also opened stores in Argentina and Uruguay.
In 1999, Casino acquired stakes in the Colombian distribution Grupo Éxito and the Brazilian distribution group GPA.
In 2000, Cdiscount became a subsidiary of Casino Group.
In 2007, GreenYellow, a subsidiary dedicated to energy production and energy performance, was created.
In 2007, GPA acquired 60% of the shares of Assaí Atacadista Assaí Atacadista, a self-service wholesale network (“cash-and-carry”), and its remaining shares in 2009.
In 2007, Casino Group became the majority shareholder of Grupo Exito.
In 2008, Monoprix, acquired Naturalia, one of the leading banners in France specializing in organic farming products.
In 2012, Casino Group became the controlling shareholder of GPA, and purchased the remaining 50% of Monoprix.
In 2017, Casino signed a partnership agreement with the British Cybermarket Ocado, one of the leading companies in food de, livery.
In 2017, relevanC was created as a tech and digital marketing subsidiary of the Casino Group.
In 2018, Monoprix get involved in e-business with Sarenza and Amazon. It bought out Sarenza, one of the leading companies in footwear sales on the Internet, and made the first business partnership signed by a general food brand with Amazon.
In 2018, Casino group, through Franprix, together with L’Oréal France launched “…le drugstore parisien”
In 2018, the Casino Group and Prodistribution opened “Le 4 Casino”, a place to eat, relax and shop where digital services enhance and simplify the day-to-day shopping experience.
In 2019, the Casino Group and its e-commerce subsidiary Cdiscount launched “La Nouvelle Cave”, a new distribution network for wines, spirits and beers.
BRANDS
In France and Latin America, Casino Group has developed a broad portfolio of distinctive brands:
Argentina
- Libertad – hypermarkets and convenience stores.
Brazil
- GPA – one of the leading companies in the Brazilian retail sector;
- ASSAÍ – cash & carry;
- MERCADO EXTRA – supermarkets;
- MINI EXTRA – small stores;
- PAÕ DE AÇÚCAR – supermarkets;
- MINUTO PAÕ DE AÇÚCAR – convenience stores;
- COMPRE BEM – supermarkets.
Cameroon
- BAO – cash & carry.
Colombia
- Grupo Éxito – one of the first Colombian distributors;
- CARULLA – premium supermarkets and convenience stores;
- SURTIMAYORISTA – wholesalers and small retailers, cash & carry
- SUPER INTER – one of the leading retailers in Colombia’s Coffee region and the southwest.
- ÉXITO (one of Colombia’s largest retailers) – hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores;
- SURTIMAX – discount store chain;
- VIVA – Viva Malls is one of the retail property leaders in Colombia.
France
- MONOPRIX – one of France’s leading city-centre retailers;
- MONOP’ – convenience stores (a condensed version of Monoprix supermarkets)
- NATURALIA – organic food chain;
- SARENZA – Sarenza is one of the leading brands in the fashion e-commerce industry;
- Casino supermarkets;
- GÉANT CASINO – hypermarkets;
- LE PETIT CASINO AND CASINO SHOP;
- SHERPA – one the leading stores at ski resorts;
- SPAR – convenience stores and supermarkets;
- VIVAL – one of the leading rural convenience stores;
- FRANPRIX – stores;
- LEADER PRICE – discount supermarkets;
- LA NOUVELLE CAVE – retailer of beer, wine and spirits;
- LE DRUGSTORE PARISIEN – retailer specialized in beauty products, toiletries and “little extras”.
Uruguay
- DEVOTO – supermarkets and Express convenience stores;
- GÉANT – hypermarkets;
- DISCO – supermarkets and hypermarkets.
E-COMMERCE & B2B SERVICES
- CDISCOUNT.
With more than 208,000 employees around the world, and over 11,500 stores worldwide across France and Latin America, Casino Group is considered one of the world’s largest companies in the food industry. It is one of the leading groups in convenience stores in France and one of the largest retailers in France, Colombia and Brazil.
According to Forbes, it is considered one of the Largest Public Companies in the World.
*Information from Forbes.com, Wikipedia.org, and www.groupe-casino.fr/en.
**Video published on YouTube by “Groupe Casino“.