Carrefour Indonesia has sealed a deal with the nation’s Mosque Council (Dewan Masjid Indonesia, DMI) to open up to 300 mini supermarkets.

The stores will be built in mosque districts by Carrefour’s local entity Trans Retail Indonesia and range in size between 10sqm and 250sqm.

According to Salaam Gateway, the company is working with the national mosque body to select districts for stores in cities including Jakarta, Sukabumi, Bandung, Bekasi, and Depok, as well as in provincial centres such as Riau, Padang, Lombok, and Makassar.

VP for corporate communications with Trans Retail, Satria Hamid, says a memorandum of understanding has been signed with DMI “and we agreed on three points: boost human capital skills in retail management, grow the number of entrepreneurs from mosque districts, and increase the purchasing power of this captive market.”

Profits will be shared equally.

The retail infrastructure and store operations will be overseen by DMI and Trans Retail will supply products as well as providing technical assistance, training, and support on merchandising, safety, hygiene and other operational factors.

The new Carrefour Indonesia stores will compete with Alfamart convenience stores.

Trans Retail operates 112 Carrefour hypermarkets and supermarkets across Indonesia under the umbrella of four brands: Carrefour, Transmart Carrefour, Transmart, and Groserindo Carrefour.

Trans Retail’s parent CT Corp acquired 100 per cent of Carrefour Indonesia from Carrefour France in late 2012.

Source: Inside Retail Asia.