LARGEST RETAIL CHAINS IN THE WORLD...

Largest Retail Chains in the world


Wal Mart (USA)

One of the most recognised retail chains around the world, Wal Mart is an American public mulitnational corporation running chains of large discount department and warehouse stores. Considered the largest public corporation when ranked by revenue, Wal Mart boasts of an staggering 2 million employees. Wal Mart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and publicly traded on the New Yord Stock Exchange in 1972.

The largest grocery retailer in the United States, Wal Mart has about 8,500 stores in 15 countries under 55 different names. However, Wal Mart operates under its own name in the United States


Carrefour (France)

The second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and third largest in profit after Wal Mart and Tesco, Carrefour is an international hypermarket chain headquartered in France. It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world.

Carrefour (France)

Carrefour operates mainly in the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan, China, Colombia and in Saudi Arabia but also has set up shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia, with most stores being of smaller size than a hypermarket, or for that matter, even a supermarket. The term 'Carrefour' means crossroads in French.

Metro AG (Germany)

Metro AG is a complete diversified retail and wholesale/cash and carry group based in Dusseldorf, Germany. It boasts of the largest market share in the home turf and is also one of the most globalised retail and wholesale corporations.

Metro AG (Germany)

This retail chain is the fourth largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal Mart, Carrefour and Tesco). Metro AG was established in 1964 by Otto Beisheim.

Tesco (United Kingdom)

Founded in 1919 by Sir Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls, Tesco is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Britain. Tesco has stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America and is the grocery market leader in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Ireland and Thailand

Tesco (United Kingdom)

The first Tesco store was opened in 1929 in Middlesex. Gradually, the business expanded rapidly and by 1939 there were over 100 Tesco stores across the country. Tesco has also ventured into areas such as retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software, financial services, telecoms and internet services.Tesco is also listed on the London Stock Exchange

Woolworths Limited (Australia)

A major Australian company, Woolworths Limited has extensive retail interest throughout Australia and New Zealand. Woolworths is the largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand by market capitalisation and sales, it is the largest food retailer in Australia and the second in New Zealand. Also, it is the largest takeaway liquor retailer and the largest hotel and poker machine operator in Australia.

Woolworths Limited (Australia)

Woolworths has over a 188,000 employees and the supermarkets are often colloquially known as 'Woolies' and have used the slogan 'The Fresh Food People' since 1987.

Delhaize Group (Belgium)

A food retailer with headquarters in Belgium, Delhaize which was founded in 1867 operates in eight countries and three continents. Delhaize focuses mainly on the operation of food supermarkets. Delhaize has a network of 2,705 stores and about 140,000 employees on its payroll.

Group (Belgium)

Store formats are primarily supermarkets, which represent about 85 % of Delhaize Group's sales network. In the year 2007, the company left the Czech market after 16 years and sold all of its 97 supermarkets ot Billa

Marks and Spencer (United Kingdom)

A British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, Marks and Spencer (also known as M&S) has over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. Founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds, Marks and Spencer specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products.

Marks and Spencer (United Kingdom)

Marks and Spencer became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over a billion pounds, although it was soon embroiled in a crisis.

Dansk Supermarked A/S (Denmark)

The Danish Supermarket Ltd is a corporation owning several chains of stores. Also known as Dansk Supermarked A/S, the store chains operate mostly in Denmark but have now expanded to several European countries.

Dansk Supermarked A/S (Denmark)

This supermarket was built on the foundation of the Salling Department Store, created in 1906 by Ferdinand Salling. In 1970, the Danish Supermarket Group gave the Danes the first discount store in Denmark by the name of Bilka, which was located in Tilst, near Aarhus. At the opening of the store, a massive 50,000 people were visiting the store almost every single day

S Group (Finland)

The S Group is a Finnish retailing cooperative organisation that was founded in the year 1904 and consists of 22 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland in the markets for groceries, consumer durables, and service station and car sales.

S Group (Finland)

The S Group consists of 22 regional co-operative enterprises and 13 local co-operative enterprises. In total, these had 1.7 million individual members in 2007, a number that has grown from 1.2 million in 2003.

Pantaloon Retail (India)

A name that Indians can easily associate with is, Pantaloon Retail Limited, a large Indian retailer, a part of the Future Group. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company has over 1,000 stores across 71 cities in India and a massive 30,000 employees.

Pantaloon Retail (India)

The company's brands include Pantaloons, a chain of fashion outlets, Big Bazaar, a hypermarket chain and Food Bazaar, a supermarket chain. Some of the company's other regional brands include, Depot, Shoe Factory and Brand Factory.

Source : msn