Inside CarrefourSA’s Reports: 3 Shocking Truths Behind Billions in Revenue
Introduction: The Numbers Behind the Storefront
CarrefourSA is one of Turkey’s best-known retail giants — a brand that touches millions of consumers every day. With thousands of products lining its shelves, bustling stores, and constant promotions, it gives the impression of a strong and steadily growing business.
But behind this busy storefront, the company’s official activity and financial reports for the first nine months of 2025 tell a very different story. Beneath the impressive revenue figures lie deep losses, an aggressive store network overhaul, and a complete halt in innovation spending.
These three interconnected findings reveal the challenging transformation the company is currently undergoing — and the price it’s paying to stay afloat.
1. Massive Revenue, Even Bigger Losses
The first and most striking finding is the enormous gap between sales and profitability.
CarrefourSA generated an impressive ₺60.4 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2025 — a clear sign of its strong market presence and customer reach.
Yet the bottom line paints a completely different picture: during the same period, the company reported a ₺4.7 billion net loss.
The impact of these losses is most visible in shareholders’ equity, which collapsed from ₺5.5 billion at the end of 2024 to just ₺571 million as of September 30, 2025.
In other words, the company’s financial buffer has almost evaporated, leaving it extremely vulnerable to shocks.
So how is this loss being financed?
The reports show a surge in short-term debt. Current liabilities jumped from ₺24.8 billion to ₺30.5 billion in just nine months.
This signals a growing reliance on debt simply to keep operations running — a clear sign of financial strain that is now reshaping CarrefourSA’s business model, particularly its store portfolio.
2. The “Open-Close” Strategy: 188 Stores Opened, 192 Closed
CarrefourSA’s store network is anything but static — it’s in constant motion.
According to the company’s activity report, 188 new stores opened in the first nine months of 2025. However, 192 stores were also closed during the same period.
This isn’t a coincidence — it’s part of an aggressive portfolio optimization strategy.
The numbers suggest a deliberate shift away from capital-intensive, company-owned formats toward franchise-based operations, which require less investment and provide faster cash flow.
The data backs this up: most of the new openings were franchise stores, while many closures came from company-owned supermarkets, Mini, and Gourmet formats.
As of September 30, 2025, CarrefourSA’s network looks very different:
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Company-owned stores: 590
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Franchise stores: 609
For the first time in the company’s history, franchised outlets outnumbered owned stores — hard evidence that CarrefourSA’s business model has pivoted toward survival through franchising.
It’s a pragmatic move to preserve cash, but one that also signals how much the company’s priorities have narrowed to short-term survival.
Which begs the question: what’s left for the future?
3. Innovation on Hold: ₺0 in R&D Spending
In a highly competitive, fast-evolving retail market, companies are expected to invest in technology, digitalization, and logistics optimization.
Yet CarrefourSA’s 2025 report reveals something startling under the “Research and Development” section:
“No research and development activities were carried out by the company between January 1 and September 30, 2025.”
In other words: ₺0 in R&D spending.
This isn’t just a sign of cost-cutting — it’s a pause on innovation itself.
While competitors are investing in AI, digital customer experiences, and supply chain technology, CarrefourSA’s complete halt in innovation spending could leave it technologically disadvantaged in the long term.
The company appears to be channeling all its remaining resources toward immediate financial stabilization — even if that means sacrificing its future competitiveness.
Conclusion: A Transformation Full of Uncertainty
CarrefourSA’s 2025 nine-month reports reveal more than just numbers — they tell a story of crisis, reaction, and transformation.
A heavy loss sheet (Finding 1) has pushed the company to abandon capital-heavy operations and pivot to franchising (Finding 2), while at the same time cutting future-oriented R&D investment to zero (Finding 3).
Together, these data points show a company in survival mode, undergoing a painful but necessary restructuring to stay in the game.
As CarrefourSA fights to remain standing in one of the most competitive sectors of the Turkish economy, one question remains:
Will this bold — and risky — transformation be enough to bring the company back to profitability in the years ahead?