Last week, I attended a fascinating talk by Patrick Lasfargues, Vice President for International Development at Carrefour, who discussed at length the impending arrival of Carrefour in Israel.

In a country with extremely high retail prices, Carrefour aims to disrupt the market by offering a wide variety of quality products at lower prices. Mr. Lasfargues emphasized the strategic importance of this endeavor, stressing how this project is the group’s number one international priority because of what Israel represents on a global scale.
He gave us an inside perspective of the utter complexity of such an operation, because coming to Israel means opening kosher-certified supermarkets, which will be a first for the Carrefour group.

Elizabeth Cohen, Patrick Lasfargues, and Catherine Lacrosniere

With this new market launch, Mr. Lasfargues revealed some of the many things he recently learned. For example, he expected to have to completely update his list of suppliers to conform to kosher restrictions, but he discovered instead that a great number of his existing suppliers were already kosher-certified and that they would not even ask for higher prices.

He also praised the warm and unique welcome he received in Israel; his agreeing to give a presentation for Israel Bonds is a testament to his dedication to this project. Having the opportunity to listen to and ask questions of such a highly ranked and interesting professional was a unique opportunity for the young graduate that I am. I thank Israel Bonds and Elizabeth Cohen for the experience, as she never fails to organize first-class events with unique guests.