The Dubai based MAJID Al FUTTAIM GROUP (http://www.majidalfuttaim.com/index.php) is building a mega mall in Tehran in a venture with an Iranian investor. Carrefour (http://www.carrefour.com/) will be a major brand in the mentioned mall.

Source (Arabic) (http://www.asharqalawsat.com/details.asp?section=6&issue=10327&article=409587)

Wow.. sounds like plan! lol..

It's strange a UAE firm is building in Iran, it's usualy an Iranian in affiliation with a UAE firm building in Dubai :)..

Can you tell me which district in Tehran the mall is to be located?

Thanks for the info :)

Great!
Hopefully they'll even publish some renders soon.

:banana:!!!!!

AGREED! this is great!

Wow.. sounds like plan! lol..

It's strange a UAE firm is building in Iran, it's usualy an Iranian in affiliation with a UAE firm building in Dubai :)..

Can you tell me which district in Tehran the mall is to be located?

Thanks for the info :)

It is just a press release without details which are supposed to follow soon

Oh ok.. Well I don't read Arabic so I couldn't tell :)

Thanks for the clarification

This is a very rough translation provided by GOOGLE:

<Fatim> UAE build a big shopping complex in Tehran Dubai : Essam Al-Sheikh said a senior official in the group Majed Fatim Emirates, based in Dubai, said yesterday that the group began to build a huge shopping center in the Iranian capital Tehran. The Center carries a <Carrefour> French group which owns Emirates concession rights in the Middle East. The Jeffrey Rosli, CEO of the company Maf of real estate development, the status of Lafayette, currently under construction in Tehran in a joint venture with the Iranian private sector. The Emirates Group currently operates 19 Carrefour stores in the region, including ten in the UAE and one in each of the Sultanate of Oman and Qatar and three in Egypt and four in Saudi Arabia. He said Rosli <Iran market full of opportunities, either on the risk of each market in the world risks>. He did not want to reveal the company's investments in the project, which is the first in Iran. He said <opened an office in Tehran and we actively in the search for those market opportunities>. Rosli pointed out that the investment Maf to develop real estate in the Middle East amounted to $ 20 billion.

http://i11.tinypic.com/2yvqkon.png

Al Futtaim Starts Building Carrefour Mall In Tehran - Report

Mar 08, 2007

BEIRUT (Dow Jones)--U.A.E-based Majid Al Futtaim Holding has started building a Carrefour shopping center in the Iranian capital of Tehran, the London-based daily Asharq Al Aswsat reported Thursday.

MAF is Carrefour's exclusive agent in the region, the newspaper said.

Asharq Al Awsat did not reveal MAF Holding's investment in Tehran, but it said that the holding's investments in the Middle East reached $20 billion.

http://www.zawya.com/printstory.cfm?storyid=ZW20070307000075&l=045841070308

French retailer to enter Iran by 2008

| April 17, 2007 |

French retailer Carrefour has confirmed that Majid Al Futtaim Retail, its franchise operator in the Middle East, is looking at Iran as a possible market for expansion of the hypermarket group. "MAF Retail is studying different markets across the region to expand its operations, including Iran and Syria," a spokesperson for Carrefour said.

While Carrefour refused to reveal further details, sources close to the company said that the group's first Iranian outlet is expected to open in mid-2008 in Tehran, and added that Carrefour is already in discussions with some of its key suppliers to determine which products will be available at the store.

The source added that Carrefour is likely to perform well in the Iranian market, partly because it will have the advantage of being the first hypermarket operator in the country. "A lot of people are viewing what will be the outcome, but it will be the advantage of the first mover. Whoever moves first will have the advantage to lead the market. That is what Carrefour is doing," he said.

http://www.regoverningmarkets.org/en/news/e_med_middle_east/carrefour_looks_at_iran_and_syria_for_expansion.html

Its about time "hypermarkets" are build in Iran. I am suprised that they where not build sooner. Iran has a population of 70 million.

Megamalls are usually an eyesore externally and don't add anything to the skyline... but I'm sure it'll be packed and a great place for a day out.

Does Tehran have a mall culture? What's its main shopping district and what foreign brand do they have?

Have you not been to tehran!!! Yeah they have plenty of it, however its mostly located in north and west tehran.

Carrefour shakes up Iran retailing
FT (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3c139e8e-6805-11dd-8d3b-0000779fd18c.html) | August 12, 2008

Workers at a construction site close to Tehran's Azadi sports stadium are fixing pre-cast concrete to complete the first floor of what will be a five-storey building. The workers know only that it will house a supermarket but have no clue that this will be France's Carrefour, Tehran's first international hypermarket. The French retailer will be at the centre of a building also housing furniture and clothing shops.

"This is a good middle-class neighbourhood for Carrefour because western Tehran, with high population density, does not have enough shopping centres," one engineer says. The imminent arrival of a franchise of Carrefour might have been expected to attract some excitement. Tehran must be one of the few cities in the world without an international supermarket chain.

But the low-key operation is seen by diplomats and analysts as an attempt to avoid it attracting political pressure over the country's nuclear programme that could derail the project. United Nations and unilateral US sanctions have hindered big projects in Iran but small ones have been quietly continuing despite logistical difficulties. Carrefour opens shops in the Middle East through Majid al-Futtaim (MAF), its Dubai-based franchisee, and has no plans to open a store in Tehran on its own. The UAE-based group and its representative office in Tehran, MAF Pars Hypermarket, declined to comment.

Tehran's government says the supermarket will be the fruit of a joint venture between the authority and MAF, with the former leasing the land for 20 years and providing permits and the latter investing IR223.6bn (£12.5m). "The shop [in Tehran] will carry the Carrefour brand while MAF will be the licence-holder of this brand," says Hossein Kalkhorani, managing director of Tehran municipality's investment organisation.

Analysts say President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad is backing the venture in the hope that it will ease pressure on prices. Inflation is running at 26.1 per cent and is much higher on foods. Iran's food industry suffers from high distribution costs because individual retailers are in charge of supply and there is no streamlining of the industry. "Carrefour will revolutionise Iran's food industry," a diplomat says.

"MAF has sent the standards of Carrefour shops to major domestic producers so that their products, if they meet those standards, can be supplied not only in Iran's branches but other branches of Carrefour," says Mr Kalkhorani. He says the store should open by mid-March next year and MAF plans to open 20 hypermarkets in Iran in the next 10 years. It is not clear yet how feasible it will be for Carrefour to maintain supply in the face of financial restrictions on trade with Iran as a result of US sanctions.

Chain stores in Iran have struggled with resistance from traditional merchants and the inefficiency of the state-run economy. "The presence of a foreign brand for the first time will have a positive psychological impact," says Saeed Laylaz, an analyst. But he casts doubts on Carrefour's chances of success. "Chain stores should be the last phase of economic liberalisation, not the first."

i disagree with what Saeed Laylaz says. i think they'll be hugely succesfull. If carrefour offer a "cheap and cheerful" product, which is well within their capicity - being a large multi-national, iranians will flock in their numbers.

Many Iranians comes Thailand for shopping.

Also, we will hope to export our products to Iran's shopping department stores.

I am manufacturer and supplier of socks and hosiery products to hyperstar in pakistan. can anyone guide me. how can i get access to supply to hyperstar in iran?