Carrefour and Pixmania Sign a Strategic Agreement

Regulatory News:

Carrefour (Paris:CA), the leading European retailer and the second largest worldwide, and Pixmania, a European leader in online sales of consumer electronics, a subsidiary of the Dixons Retail group, announced the signing of a pan-European strategic agreement in the non-food product segment.

This agreement fits Carrefour's multi-channel strategy and will enable the group to become a leading player in e-commerce. Pixmania has a unique set of technological solutions and expertise that has allowed the company to become a leading online sales retailer in Europe for a number of non-food categories by offering its customers an expanded range of non-food products, particularly in electricals. With this agreement, Carrefour will be able to serve the 54 million¹ European consumers who today buy non-food products online.

Lars Olofsson, Carrefour's CEO, stated: "This new partnership marks a major step in the development of Carrefour's multi-channel strategy. Our alliance with Pixmania, one of the leaders in e-commerce with operations in 26 countries and covering over 20 product universes, will enable us to offer our customers enriched non-food product lines, primarily in electronic appliances, photo, video and sound, as well as a flexible multi-channel shopping experience between our stores and the internet at the European level."

John Browett, Chairman of Pixmania’s Supervisory Board and Dixons Retail’s CEO, stated: "We welcome this agreement with Carrefour, the uncontested European leader in large-scale retailing, with a network of over 7,000 stores in Europe”. Steve and Jean-Emile Rosenblum, founders and chairmen of Pixmania, added ": This partnership will enable us to combine forces in non-food e-commerce, by taking full advantage of the Carrefour store base and notably the new Carrefour Planet store concept”.

About Carrefour
With about 16,000 stores under banner in 33 countries and more than 470,000 employees, Carrefour is the first retailer in Europe and the second largest worldwide. For over forty years, Carrefour has been a partner in the day–to–day lives of more than twenty million customers in Europe, Asia and Latin America. The Group combines different store formats - hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores and cash & carry outlets - constantly adapting to its customers’ consumption patterns, and offering the lowest prices on a large range of products and services. With more than 3 billion cash transactions per year, the Group, through its activities, has an economic, social and environmental responsibility and commits to the quality of its products and the security of its customers.

About Pixmania
The Pixmania Group was created in 2000 and is one of the largest e-commerce businesses in Europe, with a turnover of 890 million Euros in 2010/2011 and nearly 1,400 employees. Its BtoC (Pixmania.com, Webhallen.com) and BtoB (Pixmania-pro.com) activities generate more than 30 million unique visitors a month. An entrepreneurial approach and strong values such as creativity, efficiency, ethics, ambition and high standards have contributed to Pixmania’s ongoing success. Pixmania.com applies innovative market strategies on an international level, leading to a pan-European presence in 26 countries and 17 languages. The group is also a pioneer in multi-channel sales, opening bricks-and-mortar pick-up stores in major European cities and working alongside Dixons retail outlets to create successful synergies.

¹ 28% of the population of EU countries where Carrefour is present.