OREANDA-NEWS. Carrefour has joined forces with the FEEF (the French Federation of Enterprises and Entrepreneurs) to launch an action plan designed to get more SMEs’ products into its stores. The plan targets 3 key areas: simplifying business relations, supporting innovation and taking action to ensure that environmental and societal issues are taken into account.

Simplifying business relationships with SMEs. Carrefour and the FEEF are pledging to provide single points of contact, reduce the number of meetings needed to formalise contracts and simplify business negotiations.

Supporting innovation. Carrefour and the FEEF will provide more opportunities for meetings between Carrefour's teams and innovative SMEs (such as the Innovation Awards, SME trade fairs, etc.) so that the number of innovative products in stores can be increased.

Taking action in relation to CSR issues. Carrefour and the FEEF are undertaking to adopt an eco-friendly approach in their dealings with SMEs based on CSR commitments: eliminating waste, giving preference to nutritional products and protecting biodiversity. Essentially, this means that Carrefour will provide SMEs with support in developing eco-friendly products and in undertaking self-analysis initiatives so as to identify their best practices. The retailer is also undertaking to promote the ENTREPRENEUR + COMMITTED company approach – which has been adopted by the FEEF – among its teams and customers via its catalogues.

Carrefour, partnering 5000 French SMEs with a more than 8% increase in turnover generated by SMEs in 2015:
-    More than ten regional trade shows were held to increase the range of local products in stores
-    The SME awards were set up and were presented to ten or so PME is in 2015
-    Meetings were arranged between French SMEs and Carrefour China and Carrefour Poland teams in order to bolster their export business
-    INNBOX is being launched in 2016 – a brand-new tool that the retailer will make available to SMEs in order to help them get their innovations off the ground