Casino Group or Casino Guichard-Perrachon is a French mass-market retail group. It was founded on 2 August 1898 by Geoffroy Guichard under the corporate name Guichard-Perrachon & Co. Casino Group is the source of many innovations such as the first distributor's brand in 1901, the first self-service store in 1948 or even the display of a sell-by date on consumer products in 1959. As a historical player in mass-market retail in France, the group also started to grow internationally at the end of the 90s. It acquired

GPA Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurements for varying levels of achievements in a course. Grades can be assigned as letters (usually A through F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), as a percentage, or as a numbe ...

and

Grupo Éxito Grupo Éxito is a South American retail company. It operates 2,606 stores in South America. The stores sell a wide range of food and non food products. Though originally a textiles maker and seller (under such brand names as Arkitect, People, Br ...

in 1999, major companies in mass-market retail in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. Casino Group operates across all food and non-food formats:

hypermarkets A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

convenience stores A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticke ...

discount stores A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down cos ...

and

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

stores. Other than the eponymous "

Géant Casino Géant Casino () is a hypermarket chain based in Saint-Étienne, France, part of the French retailing giant Groupe Casino. As of February 2016, it had 120 stores in France. History Géant opened its first hypermarket in 1970. In Dec 2015, G ...

" and "Casino Supermarchés", Casino Group owns other brands such as

Monoprix Monoprix S.A. () is a major French retail chain with its headquarters in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, near Paris. The company's stores combine food retailing with fashion, beauty and home products. History The company was founded in 1932 ...

, Franprix,

Leader Price Leader Price, (full name: ''Société S.A. Leader Price Holding''), is a French discount store chain of the Groupe Casino, headquartered in Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2 ...

Cdiscount Cdiscount is the third largest (behind amazon.fr and veepee.fr) French e-commerce website with products such as electronics, household appliances and food. In 2013, Cdiscount was the most important French e-commerce website in terms of turnover ...

Vival Vival, ''sometimes referred to as Vival by CASINO, and Vival, viva la vie,'' is a brand of local grocery shops run by Groupe Casino Casino Group or Casino Guichard-Perrachon is a French mass-market retail group. It was founded on 2 August 1 ...

, Spar, Sherpa and Le Petit Casino. Casino Group, currently managed by

Jean-Charles Naouri Jean-Charles Naouri (born 8 March 1949 in Bône, Algeria) is a French businessman. He is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and controlling shareholder of Groupe Casino. Education Naouri received his baccalaureat degree at only 15 years old ...

, is quoted on the

Paris Stock Exchange Euronext Paris is France's securities market, formerly known as the Paris Bourse, which merged with the Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Brussels exchanges in September 2000 to form Euronext NV. As of 2022, the 795 companies listed had a combined market ...

. In 2017, its total revenue was €37.8 billion. As of November 2021, the group has a market capitalization of approximately €2.35 billion.

History

Casino’s genesis (1892 – 1898)

Geoffroy Guichard was born on 27 July 1867 in

Feurs Feurs (; frp, Fuèrs) is a commune in the department of Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. History Antiquity The city was founded by the Romans. The name Feurs is a contraction of ''Segusiavorum Forum''. With a forum the Gallo-Roman era, c ...

, in the

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (ARA; ; frp, Ôvèrgne-Rôno-Ârpes; oc, Auvèrnhe Ròse Aups; it, Alvernia-Rodano-Alpi) is a region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Au ...

region. His parents were the owners of a retail grocery business in

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

. In 1889, he married Antonia Perrachon and became a partner with Paul Perrachon, his cousin-in-law, who had been the owner of a shop in the region for around ten years. Geoffroy Guichard became the sole business owner in 1892. The store, located rue des Jardins, was originally the Lyrical Casino of Saint-Étienne. Closed in the 1850s, the Lyrical Casino was transformed into a retail grocery store in the 1860s. Geoffroy Guichard grew the grocery store to turn it into a general food store, based on the Felix Potin model. In April 1898, due to the success of the concept, Geoffroy Guichard opened the first branch in

Veauche Veauche (; frp, Viôche) is a commune in the Loire department in central France. It is from Saint-Etienne and is bordered on the west by the Loire River. Population See also *Communes of the Loire department The following is a list of t ...

, in Loire.

The beginnings of Casino (1898 – 1904)

On 2 August 1898, Geoffroy Guichard founded with his father-in-law « la Société des Magasins du Casino » and « Établissements économiques d’alimentation under the corporate name Guichard-Perrachon & Co. In total, 77 people subscribed to the capital of the new company. The Guichard spouses owned 35% of the company’s capital (limited by shares). As from 1898, warehouses and factories were built in Saint-Étienne. Damaged by a fire in 1900, they were rebuilt reaching a total surface of 16 000 m². In the factories, Casino baked bread, produced oil and chocolate, roasted coffee, distilled and produced homemade liquors. An important wine business was also developed. Nearly 40 branches were opened in 1899. In September 1904, the 100th branch was opened in

Lamastre Lamastre (; oc, La Mastra) is a commune in the Ardèche department in southern France. It lies on the river Doux. The Chemin de fer du Vivarais, a metre-gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre ...

Ardèche Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.20th century The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear ...

, the company developed a social action plan dedicated to its employees, with, in 1904, the launch of an insurance fund, the creation of a

health service Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profess ...

in 1905, benefits for large families and a birth premium in 1910 or even child benefits and profit sharing for all employees as from 1916. In 1912, Casino created the Sports branch Casino employees’ Social Club, a sports organization in accordance with its sports corporatism policy. The Social club opened its football section in July 1919 alongside other disciplines such as athletics or basketball. More commonly referred to as AS Casino, the Social club became "l’Association Sportive Stéphanoise" in 1927 then "l’Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne" in 1933. In 1923, in celebration of its 25th anniversary, Casino put in place a

pension fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...

which ensured the security of employees leaving the company. The Casino share was quoted on the Stock Exchange as from 1910.

Industrial development after WWI (1920 – 1940)

As from 1920, Casino continued to grow by creating factories and warehouses. In 1929, the company counted nearly 1000 branches and over 500 outlets. At that time, Casino was present across 28 districts. In 1923, Geoffroy Guichard became administrator of « L’Épargne de Toulouse », which had similar operations to Casino's with around 300 branches located in the South-West of France. Geoffroy Guichard took permanent control of the company in 1925. Geoffroy Guichard announced the transfer of the company to his children during the general meeting of October 1929. At that time, Casino counted around 2000 employees. After the death of Geoffroy Guichard in May 1940, Mario Guichard became President of the Executive Board. He was surrounded by his brothers Jean, Georges, Paul et Pierre Guichard, and his brother-in-law François Kemlin. In June 1941, François Kemlin created a network of clandestine activities. It benefited from important material resources made available by the company. These actions ranged from making packages/parcels and sending letters to creating files to enable the escape of War prisoners. Bombings during the War damaged many factories, warehouses and offices. Some even had to close down.

The Great innovations (1940 – 1950)

In 1947, Pierre Guichard took a trip to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

to observe growing trends. He discovered the self-service store concept. A year later, Casino opened its first self-service store in Saint-Étienne. Over a period of 10 years, 500 branches adopted this new sales principle. In 1950, one of the first cooling systems was put in place in distribution. There again, it was a type of innovation observed in the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Gradually, warehouses were equipped with cooling chambers and refrigerated coolers. In 1959, Casino was the first distributor to display a sell-by date on its products. This was made compulsory in December 1984 with the use-by date. Already in 1928, the Group had put in place "calendar displays" on product packaging, as a quality guarantee.

The development of new formats (1950 – 1990)

In 1957, Casino opened its first supermarket in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, under the brand Nica. The store, which was totally self-service, offered both food and non-food products. The first supermarket with the Casino name opened in May 1960 in

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

. A few months later, four new stores opened in Nice,

Firminy Firminy (; oc, Frominiu) is a commune in the Loire department in central France. It lies on the river Ondaine, 13 km southwest of Saint-Étienne by rail. History The ancient name of the town was ''Firminiaco'' or ''Firminiacus'' (lit. " ...

and

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. The first two Paris supermarkets opened in 1970 in Saint-Denis and Bagneux. In March 1970, the first Géant Casino hypermarket opened its doors in Marseille. It was then the biggest store in France with a surface of 16000 m². The shopping mall was made of 41 independent businesses and a Casino cafeteria. The SOMABRI company (SOciété des Magasins de BRIcolage/the company of DIY stores) was created in 1978 to enable Casino Group to be present on the DIY market. It opened its first two stores in 1978 in Toulouse Fenouillet and in Clermont le Brézet. Casino transferred its majority ownership to Castorama in October 1989..

The internationalization of Casino Group (1976 – 1999)

In 1976, the internationalization of Casino Group started in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

with the creation of Casino USA to operate French cafeterias in the USA. Restaurants were opened in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, then in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

, Westwood Village, Costa Mesa and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Many convenience businesses also opened their doors under the name Le Petit Casino. The Group took over the chain Thriftymart Inc stores which then became Smart & Final Iris. Back then, the company owned around 90 retail outlets, all self-service, and implanted mainly in California. The internationalization of Casino Group then accelerated until the end of the 1990s with its development across South America. In March 1996, Casino Group signed a partnership agreement with Dairy Farm International, one of the biggest groups of supermarkets in Asia. A joint company was then created for the development of hypermarkets in the Asian South-East and particularly in Taïwan where a first hypermarket opened in 1998. In 1999, Casino Group bought into the capital of Distribution Groups GPA and Grupo Éxito in Brazil and in Colombia.

Merger between Casino Group and Rallye Group (1985 – 1991)

In April 1985, Casino Group purchased the Company Cedis of

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerl ...

which helped the Group develop in the East of France. In April 1990, Casino took over the Compagnie Française d’Afrique Occidentale, La Ruche Méridionale d’

Agen The communes of France, commune of Agen (, ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne Departments of France, department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. ...

and SODIM and strengthened its implantation in the South of France. In October 1992, Casino Group, then managed by Antoine Guichard (grandson of Geoffroy Guichard), merged with the Rallye Group owned by Jean-Charles Naouri. Rallye brought Casino all of its distribution and catering activities. The Group was then present all over the French territory. At the end of this operation, Rallye owned 29% of the total capital of Casino Group. Antoine Guichard, the last family manager of Casino Group, did not want to give up the presidency of the company. The Rallye company was founded in 1945 by Jean Cam. Threatened by serious cash flow problems, it was bought back in 1991 by Jean-Charles Naouri and his investment company, Euris.

Growth in France: affiliates and partnerships (1992 – 1997)

In order to increase its presence in France, Casino Group continued its wave of acquisitions by signing many agreements with national distributors. Corse Distribution Group became affiliated with Casino in 1992. Many hypermarkets and supermarkets then became Casino stores. Between 1995 and 1996, Casino took majority ownership in the different companies of Corse Distribution, enabling the development of many new franchise names. In December 1996, Casino Group and Monoprix, branch of

Galeries Lafayette The Galeries Lafayette () is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates in a number of other locations in France and oth ...

, signed a partnership agreement for purchasing and logistics. Less than a year later, Casino supported Monoprix financially in the total acquisition of Prisunic's capital and became therefore, shareholder at 21.6% of the capital of this new Group. In September 1997, Casino Group took majority ownership in the Franprix and Leader Price brands and their network of 650 stores.

Major changes in Casino Group’s shareholding (1997 – 1998)

In 1997, after many months of stock-market battle, Jean-Charles Naouri, the Guichard family and employees of the Group rejected a hostile tender offer made by the Promodès distributor. Following a counter-bid, Jean-Charles Naouri became the majority shareholder of Casino Group in 1998.

Acceleration of the investment strategy (1999 – 2014)

Under the aegis of Jean-Charles Naouri, Casino Group developed its assets in France and internationally. In March 1997, Casino Group signed an affiliate agreement with the Uruguayan Brand Disco for the construction of a Géant Casino in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

. The store opened its doors in 1999. In February 1998, Casino Group took over the Argentine Group Libertad operating 7 hypermarkets across the country. Libertad was then the third company of hypermarkets in

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

. In 1999, Casino subscribed to the capital of leading distribution companies in their respective countries, GPA in Brazil and Grupo Éxito in Colombia. After having strengthened its position in 2005, Casino Group became in July 2012 the sole controlling shareholder of GPA, no 1 in distribution and no 2 in e-business in Brazil. In 2000, Casino Group acquired Monoprix (50% of it), Franprix, Leader Price and Cdiscount. Activities grew again with the creation of Banque Casino in 2001 as well as property management company Mercialys, managing all the shopping malls owned by Casino. These assets represented 150 shopping malls on hypermarket and supermarket sites, as well as the premises of cafeterias owned by the Group. In 2005, Jean-Charles Naouri was appointed

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Casino Group. Casino inaugurated its new Head Office in Saint-Étienne, its historical stronghold, in 2007. In the same year, the Group created GreenYellow, its energy-specialised branch. Its first photovoltaic plant was connected to the electric network in 2010. In that year, Casino Group continued its growth in Asia by acquiring Thai participations in the Carrefour Group with its Big C branch. In 2011, the Charle brothers sold their shares in the Cdiscount capital. Casino then held 99.6% of shares. In the same year, Casino Group and La Poste signed a partnership agreement. With a length of 5 years, it aimed at creating convenience food businesses in available premises, next to

Post offices A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

, in villages of under 12,000 inhabitants. In July 2012, the Group acquired 50% of shares held by Galeries Lafayette Group in Monoprix. Jean-Charles Naouri was named CEO by the Board of Directors of the Brand. The Group purchased the majority of Le Mutant stores and renamed them "Leader Price". In parallel, the Group reduced its shares in Mercialys, by around 40.2%. On 8 October 2014, the Group and Intermarché announced an agreement as regards purchases for big brand products in France. This agreement meant that the 2 Groups were purchasing leaders in France with a market share of 25.8%.

Activity refocusing (since 2015)

In February 2016, the Group announced the sale of 59% of its shares in its Big C Thai activities for 3.1 billion

Euros The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . T ...

. In April, the company announced the sale of

Big C Vietnam Big C Supercenter operates "hypermarkets" or " supercenters", modern retail businesses managed by Groupe Casino.It is one of the major retailers in the world, with over 200,000 employees working in more than 11,000 stores in Vietnam , Thailand, Ar ...

to Central Group for 1 Billion dollars. In December 2017, Casino Group signed an agreement with

Ocado Ocado Group is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It owns a 50% share of Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer) and licenses its grocery fulfilment technology to global ...

to develop a technological platform with an automated warehouse in France. Announced a business partnership aiming at selling Monoprix food products to

Amazon Prime Now Prime Now, LLC is a subsidiary of Amazon that oversees its same-day grocery shopping and delivery service. The name also originated a brand, including a custom app, to distinguish the service from Amazon's other offerings, but both the branding a ...

customers.

Activities of the Group

Unlike its main French competitors, Casino Group made the bet of developing a multi-brand strategy in the 1990s under the management of Jean-Charles Naouri. Therefore, aside from its eponymous brands Casino Supermarkets and Géant Casino, the Group developed Monoprix, Franprix or even

in France, but also Pao de Açúcar and

Extra Extra or Xtra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * ''Extra'' (newspaper), a Brazilian newspaper * ''Extra!'', an American me ...

in Brazil or even Exito and

Carulla Carulla is a Colombian supermarket chain owned by Grupo Éxito and headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia. It was founded in 1905, and now is one of the largest supermarket companies in the country. Founded in the city of Barranquilla, it soon mo ...

in Colombia.

In France

Firstly, Casino oriented its multi-format and multi-brand structure towards the development of convenience and discount stores. The model developed by Casino is founded on the network of brands with differentiated and complementary positioning. In

Metropolitan France Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Métropole''), also known as European France (french: Territoire européen de la France) is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the European ...

, the Group operates the brands Géant Casino (hypermarkets), Casino Supermarkets, Monoprix, Franprix, Leader Price, Spar, Vival, Le Petit Casino, Casino Restauration. In

Réunion Island Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island o ...

, the brands are mainly Score and Jumbo Score.

Internationally

The Group directs its development towards countries with a strong growth and profitability potential, where its branches have strong local roots. South America has therefore become its priority area for development. The Group is leader on the market in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, and more particularly in Brazil and in Colombia.

E-business

Casino Group concentrates its e-business activity within the company

Cnova Cnova N.V. is an e-commerce company, founded in June 2014. Cnova includes Cdiscount (operating in France, Belgium, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Colombia) and Cnova Brazil (operating in Brazil). Cnova N.V. is part of Groupe Casino, a French global ret ...

, created in June 2014.

, branch of Casino Group, became over a few years a major

e-business Electronic business (or "Online Business" or "e-business") is any kind of business or commercial transaction that includes sharing information across the internet. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, grou ...

actor over the Internet in France.

Real estate

The real estate activity of Casino Group is driven in France by l’Immobilière Casino (which owns the walls of its stores) and its old brand Mercialys.

Sponsorship

Casino Group created a Company Foundation which supports childhood development by fighting against the cultural exclusion of the under-privileged. The Casino Corporate Foundation contributes to their education by funding theatre projects. Founded in 2009, the Casino Foundation complements the other foundations of Casino Group present in France and in Latin America: the Exito Foundation in Colombia created in 1985, mainly engaged against child malnutrition, the GPA Institute which fosters youth education and their professional insertion and the Monoprix Foundation which fights against isolation in cities.

Casino and the world of sport

Casino and sport association

AS Saint-Etienne - Olympique de Marseille - 1938-1939

Casino Group is at the origin of the

AS Saint-Étienne Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), commonly known as A.S.S.E. () or simply Saint-Étienne, is a professional football club based in Saint-Étienne in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The club was founded in 1933 and competes in ...

football Club created in 1919, the Sports Social Club of Saint-Étienne. It was born more precisely as a sports section of the « Employees’ Social Club of the Casino store company », the organization created in 1912 by Casino to support its sports corporatism policy. The Social Club logically takes on board the green colour of the grocery chain. A few months after the creation of the French Football Association-Federation (FFAF), the Social Club, more commonly named « AS Casino » (ASC), opened its football section in 1919, as well as other disciplines such as athletics and basketball. On 29 March 1920, under the initiative of Albert Jacquet, general secretary of the company, AS Casino became « the Social Sports Club » in order to respect the rules adopted by the Federation prohibiting the use of brands in the names of clubs, as well as keeping the initials. The club was then reserved to Casino employees and the training centre was located on the « Pont de l'âne » field, property of the Group. Seven years later, under the initiative of Pierre Guichard, son of Geoffroy Guichard who had become president of the club after MM. Godot and Jean Moulin, the Social Sports Club merged with the University Forez Stadium within the « Stéphanoise Sports Association » (SSA), which kept of course the green colour of the ASC. In 1930, the French Federation voted for the adoption of professionalism in France. It became necessary for the SSA, whose managers were ambitious, to have its own stadium. The founder of Casino Group purchased a large field and gave it to the club. A membership offered to « friends » of the club helped gather the necessary funds to build the first facilities, later named

Stade Geoffroy-Guichard Stade Geoffroy-Guichard is a multi-purpose stadium in Saint-Étienne, France. It is used primarily for football matches, and tournaments such as the UEFA Euro 1984 and 2016, the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup. It i ...

Cyclism

In 1996, Casino Group became the main sponsor of the current

AG2R La Mondiale AG2R La Mondiale is a French multinational insurance firm headquartered in Paris that engages in global insurance, financial services, supplementary retirement fund and supplementary pension. With €29 billion in contributions in (2017), AG2R L ...

cycling team. The team therefore took the name « Petit Casino – C’est votre équipe ». In the following year, Casino increased its funding and AG2R Provident Insurance became the second sponsor. The team doubled its budget, which went to 25 million

Francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

, and took the name "Casino-AG2R Prévoyance" from 1997 to 1999. Casino's commitment finished at the end of the 1999 season. Over 3 years, the team also won 3 stages of the Tour de France, one stage of the

Tour of Spain Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

, 3 major classics and many national championships. It counted athletes such as Alexandre Vinokourov, Benoît Salmon or even

Jaan Kirsipuu Jaan Kirsipuu (born 17 July 1969 in Tartu) is an Estonian former road bicycle racer, who currently works as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team . He spent the majority of his career riding under the management of Vincent Lavenu, initial ...

. The Casino Green is the traditional colour of Casino Group. It was the colour of the blinds in the former lyrical Casino, which was situated rue des Jardins in Saint-Etienne.

Shareholding

Jean-Charles Naouri has been the majority shareholder of Casino Group since 1992 via his Rallye SA company.

Brands

;France Groupe Casino's brands a range of retail formats: *Casino Supermarchés, a supermarket chain *

, a city-centre variety chain selling food, personal and beauty care products, household products and apparel * Franprix, a city convenience store chain *Superettes: **Petit Casino **Casino Shop **Casino Shopping **

Spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

**Vival *Hypermarkets **Hyper Casino: Small hypermarkets chain. **Géant Casino: Hypermarket chain. Brand created in 1970, it is doomed to disappear in favour of Casino Supermarchés and Casino #hyperFrais. **Casino #hyperFrais: Brand created in 2022 to replace Géant Casino.https://www.lineaires.com/la-distribution/pourquoi-geant-devient-casino-hyperfrais *Online stores **Cdiscount *Property management **GreenYellow In the world *

Grupo Pão de Açúcar Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição, doing business as GPA (formerly as Grupo Pão de Açúcar), is the biggest Brazilian company engaged in business retailing of food, general merchandise, electronic goods, home appliances and other products f ...

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– Pão de Açúcar – Assaí *

– Carulla – Surtimax - Cdiscount *

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

: Libertad - Mini Libertad *

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

: Devoto – Disco *

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

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Financial highlights

Net business volume includes all revenue from consolidated companies, associates and franchisees, on a 100% basis.

Share information

*Groupe Casino shares are listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris market (Compartment A) ISIN: FR0000125585 *Par value:

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

1.53 per share *Majority shareholders at end-2012 (voting rights):

Free float In the context of stock markets, the public float or free float represents the portion of shares of a corporation that are in the hands of public investors as opposed to locked-in shares held by promoters, company officers, controlling-interest inv ...

: 38.6%; Groupe Rallye 59.3%; employees 2.1%.

References

External links

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Casino Guichard Perrachon Sa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casino Supermarkets of France Retail companies of France Retail companies established in 1898 Multinational companies headquartered in France French brands Companies listed on Euronext Paris 1898 establishments in France https://ae3888.link/