Celestino took over the running of the Carrefour hypermarket in April 2006, replacing Francois Olivier, who developed the network in Romania and subsequently moved to a similar position with Metro Cash&Carry Romania. During his two-year tenure, Celestino opened six stores, raising the network to 12 hypermarkets, of which five in Bucharest, and one each in Ploiesti, Constanta, Brasov, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, Braila and Suceava, the latter opened yesterday, following a €20 million investment.

Carrefour Romanian posted net sales in 2007 worth €866 mln, up 54.5 percent year-on-year, based on a maintaining of exchange rates.

According to Russian real estate sources, quoted in the local press, the French retailer plans to open at least 15 hypermarkets this year in Russia. Carrefour announced last year it would open its first store in Russia in the second quarter of 2008 in a commercial complex in Moscow.