Géant Casino

Géant Casino was a hypermarket chain based in Saint-Étienne, France, part of the French retailing giant Groupe Casino. It has been replaced by Casino #hyperFrais.

In February 2016, it had 120 stores in France.

History
Géant opened its first hypermarket in 1970. In December 2015, Géant Casino had about 142 hypermarkets all over the world. The concept is, like most hypermarkets, to have all kinds of items available under one roof. A loyalty card system has been introduced by Géant, with a price discount on certain groceries. There are over two million Géant card-holders.

Géant Casino is the fifth largest hypermarket chain in the world and the fourth largest in France after Carrefour, E.Leclerc and Auchan.

In june 2022, with the aim of re-emphasizing the food side of hypermarkets, and after the transfert of 29 hypermerkets to the brand Casino Supermarchés. The Groupe Casino announce the discountinuation of the Géant Casino brand in favor of the new brand Casino #hyperFrais.

Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE
Fu-Com joined with Groupe Casino to bring the Géant hypermarket brand to the Middle East where Géant opened its first store in Bahrain in May 2001. A store was opened in Dubai in 2005 and one in Abu Dhabi in 2015 at Yas Mall. Géant expanded its operations to Kuwait by opening a store in 2005 in Kuwait City.

Acquisition by Majid Al Futtaim Group

In 2017, Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim Group bought 26 Geant hypermarkets in the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait by acquiring the Geant franchise owner Retail Arabia from BMA International for an undisclosed amount. The acquired stores were rebranded as Carrefour and Carrefour Market depending on their store format or size.

Saudi Arabia
In April 2004, Geant Saudi Arabia opened its first store in Riyadh after a franchise agreement between Groupe Casino and Fawaz Al Hokair Group. By 2008, Geant had 10 hypermarkets operating in the Kingdom.

Qatar
In Qatar, Groupe Casino joined with local supermarket chain Al Meera to open a hypermarket in Hyatt Plaza, and to sell Casino products in Al Meera stores.

Egypt
In Egypt, there is now a Géant supermarket in New Cairo.

Libya
The first Géant hypermarket in Libya was opened in January 2023 in Benghazi, with plans to expand in other cities.

Countries where Géant is currently not operating

 * Lebanon: Géant had one hypermarket in Lebanon which was bought in late 2008 by Sultan Trading Center and replaced by The Sultan Center to be replaced by Carrefour in 2017 upon its closure in Lebanon
 * Poland: Géant had nineteen hypermarkets in Poland, which were sold in late 2007 and early 2008 to the German company Metro AG and replaced with Real.
 * Taiwan: Géant had several hypermarket locations in Taiwan in a joint venture with a Taiwanese company. After Géant pulled out of the country, the existing hypermarkets were renamed a.mart.
 * Saudi Arabia: Al Hokair Group operated several Géant stores in the kingdom until 2009 when it was sold to Saudi Savola, the owners of rival Panda.
 * Kuwait, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates: 26 Géant stores and four Gulfmart stores were operated by Retail Arabia across Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE. Retail Arabia was acquired by Majid Al Futtaim Group, the Carrefour franchisee in the MENA region in 2017 and all acquired stores were rebranded as Carrefour for its hypermarket branches and Carrefour Market for its supermarket branches.