Largest Retail Chains in the world - Wal Mart, Carrefour, Metro AG, Tesco, Woolworths Limited, Delhaize Group, Marks and Spencer, Dansk Supermarked A/S, S Group, Pantaloon Retail
Wal Mart (USA)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
