Carrefour targets 3,000 new jobs in Spain

 

Carrefour, Europe's biggest retailer, plans to take on 3,000 new employees in Spain in 2012 with the opening of new shops, Cinco Dias said on Friday, citing the head of the company's Spanish activities, Rafael Arias-Salgado.

The newspaper reported how the group planned to add 70 to 75 supermarkets to its 180 Carrefour Market and Carrefour Express shops and to open about 100 new travel agencies on top of the 400 it already has, adding 3,000 jobs overall.

A Carrefour spokeswoman confirmed the jobs target but not the number of planned store openings.

Carrefour employs about 40,000 people in Spain, its third-largest market after France and Brazil.

On Thursday it reported weak first-quarter sales, with a plunge in demand for discretionary purchases like clothing and electricals and a deteriorating performance at its core French hypermarkets.

The world's second-biggest retailer behind U.S. giant Wal-Mart has been especially exposed to some of the countries hit worst by the euro zone debt crisis like Spain, Italy and Greece.