Carrefour S.A. is a French
multinational retailer headquartered in
Boulogne Billancourt, France, in the
Hauts-de-Seine Department near Paris. It is one of the largest
hypermarket chains in the world (with 1,452 hypermarkets at the end of 2011), the fourth largest retail group in the world in terms of
revenue (after
Wal-Mart,
Tesco and
Costco), and the third in
profit (after Wal-Mart and
Tesco). Carrefour operates mainly in Europe, Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, China, Dominican Republic, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia, with most stores being of smaller size than hypermarket or even supermarket. Carrefour means "crossroads" and "public square" in French. Previously the company head office was in
Levallois-Perret, also in the Paris suburbs. The company is a component of the
Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.