Carrefour quits Jordan over anti-Israel boycott

Carrefour credit: Bar Lavi
Carrefour credit: Bar Lavi

"Carrefour will cease all its operations in Jordan and will not continue to operate within the Kingdom,” the French retail giant said.

Following a boycott of Carrefour in Jordan in protest against its supermarket chain in Israel, the French retail giant has closed all its stores in the Hashemite Kingdom, Carrefour Jordan has announced on its Facebook page, which has 1.1 million followers. "Carrefour will cease all its operations in Jordan and will not continue to operate within the Kingdom," the Facebook statement said.

"We thank our customers for their support and apologize for any inconvenience this decision may cause," Carrefour added. The post received 8,000 likes and 3,500 responses, mainly celebrating the decision. One response said, "A lot of people are happy with this decision," and another said, "Allah will close all your stores." Another wrote that Allah would compensate all the people who had lost their jobs."

Carrefour's decision came in the wake of an orchestrated campaign by the BDS movement over the past year calling on Jordanian consumers to boycott the chain's stores. The campaign was clearly reflected in a significant decline in sales and profits.

This is the first country that has closed down Carrefour's activities following a boycott, which will certainly raise concern for the French owners, although it is likely that in Israel more Israeli consumers will enter the Carrefour branches to demonstrate solidarity, because the BDS-led boycott is designed to exert pressure on international companies perceived as supportive of Israel.

Carrefour opened its first outlets in Israel in May 2023 through local franchisee Electra Consumer Products (TASE: ECP). BDS began protesting in 2022 after Carrefour announced it was entering Israel and demanded it break its franchise agreement and refrain from selling products from settlements in Judea and Samaria. The campaign against Carrefour went up a few gears after the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas.

What further infuriated the BDS movement was that Electra Consumer Products has provided free packages to IDF soldiers during the war. BDS insists that since opening Carrefour Israel has suffered significant financial losses and it has called on the international company to examine continued activity in the country, even though in recent quarters, the investment has begun to bear fruit with reduced losses and increasing sales.

Today Carrefour opened its 108th store in Israel in Daliyat El-Carmel as it seeks to attract consumers in the Druze community as well as the haredi community. On Friday Carrefour will open its 109th store in Eilat. Later in November, the chain will open three more stores in Bat Yam, Tel Kabir and Netanya.

Worldwide Carrefour has 14,000 stores in 50 countries, which reported sales of €94 billion in 2023.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 5, 2024.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.

Carrefour credit: Bar Lavi
Carrefour credit: Bar Lavi
Unframe founders credit: Yossi Yarom Israeli AI enterprise platform co Unframe raises $50m

Unframe’s turnkey AI solutions enable companies to solve any enterprise AI use case at scale with fully functional, customized AI solutions for businesses in a matter of hours, rather than months.

Combatica credit: Combatica Combatica launches next-gen VR AI training platform

The Israeli company's virtual reality platform includes 50 AI generated scenarios, seven maps and even situations for operating night vision.

Shekel credit: Shutterstock Vladirina 32 Shekel volatility after US tariffs announcement

The shekel is weakening sharply against the euro, which is gaining following the unveiling of Donald Trump's tariffs plan.

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich credit: Noam Moskovitz Knesset Spokesperson Treasury assesses potential damage to Israel's US exports

Israel will be charged a higher tariff on its exports to the US - its biggest export customer - than Turkey and the UAE.

Iranian flag credit: Shutterstock Why inflation haunts Iran

With a month-on-month increase of 3.3% and an annual rate of 37.1%, inflation reflects the struggles of millions of Iranians.

APM merges with lawyers from Doron, Tikotzky Kantor, Gutman credit: Eyal Merilos APM merges with 12 lawyers from Doron, Tikotzky Kantor, Gutman

With the addition of these 12 lawyers, Amit Pollak Matalon & Co. will now have 135 lawyers.

US President Donald Trump credit: Reuters Sipa USA Israel on list as Trump unveils tariffs

Relatively low reciprocal tariffs will be imposed on Israeli goods sold in the US.

Deflated unicorn credit: Shutterstock Big Tech 50 reports more huge falls in startup valuations

Israeli R&D partnership Big Tech 50 reports that an investment of $2 million in Orcam made in 2021, shrank to just $31,000 at the end of 2024.

NextFerm technologies based on yeast credit: NextFerm Food-tech co NextFerm suspends operations

The company, which produces food ingredients in yeast without genetic engineering, cannot pay its debts and is seeking a buyer.

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich credit: Shlomi Yosef OECD sees recovery in growth but high inflation

The OECD Israel Economic Survey 2025 recommends that the Israeli government take several restraining measures, in order to exit the economic storm created by the war.

Dano Ben-Hur credit: Dror Sithakol Statisticians contradict BoI on impact of housing finance deals

The Central Bureau of Statistics insists the impact of 20/80 buy now pay later financing deals on the real estate market and housing prices is minimal.

Governor of the Bank of Israel Amir Yaron  credit: Government Press Office Debt fears top Bank of Israel's concerns

Most unusually, Governor of the Bank of Israel Amir Yaron's press conference last week did not focus on inflation and the impending interest rate decision.

US President Donald Trump  credit: Reuters/Leah Millis Israel moves to avoid Trump's tariffs axe

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has signed an order canceling all tariffs on imports from the US. The impact will mostly be on agricultural produce.

Forbes Rich List credit: Shutterstock Maslowski Marcin Wiz founders ranked in Forbes 2025 Rich List

There are a few dozen Israelis listed in the 2025 Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List including Wiz founders Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik and Ami Luttwak.

SatixFy CEO Nir Barkan credit: Ariel Barkan Canada's MDA Space to buy Israeli satcom co SatixFy

MDA Space will pay $269 million for the Israeli company, including taking on a $76 million debt and a 75% premium on SatixFy's closing price on Nasdaq yesterday.

Raising dollars credit: Shutterstock Israeli startups raised over $1b in March

Israeli privately-held tech companies have raised $2.1 billion in the first three months of 2025, according to IVC-LeumiTech, up 24% from the corresponding quarter of 2024.

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018