Franprix

The Franprix brand was created in 1958 by Jean Baud,[2] son of grocers from Choisy-le-Roi. Franprix consists of convenience stores under 500 m2 in size, concentrated mainly in Paris and the inner suburbs of the Île-de-France region: a sector that hypermarkets (often located on the outskirts of urban areas) were unable to fully satisfy. The Casino group acquired a stake in the company in 1997, and increased its stake year by year, until it held all the shares in 2007. It then took control of Franprix's operational management.[3]

Franprix now has 641 stores. At the same time, Franprix expanded into other major French cities, with the first store outside the Île-de-France region opening in Lyon in 2004.[4]

In 2012, Franprix entered into a partnership with logistics provider XPO Logistics to deliver its 300 Paris stores by river, in order, according to the company, to avoid traffic jams on the streets of Paris.[5]

In 2013, Franprix launches its first store on a freeway service area,[6] its first loyalty program ("Ma Carte Franprix")[7] and a charity operation, "L'Arrondi",[8] which enables customers to round up their sales receipt to the nearest euro and donate the difference to charities.

In March 2015, after testing several formulas in its Paris stores, Franprix changes its visual identity: a new mandarin-shaped logo is adopted.[9]

In 2016, Franprix signs a partnership with money transfer service Western Union, which installs money transfer terminals in its stores. The benefit for Franprix is that Western Union's customers - who are often regulars, as half of them are immigrant workers who send part of their wages to their families back home - become store customers at the same time.[10] Another partnership has been signed with the social enterprise Phénix to collect and redistribute short-dated unsold goods to local associations.[11]