ERBIL, Iraq - Today, January 15, the French hypermarket chain Carrefour opened its first store in Iraq, at Erbil's Family Mall.

The opening ceremony was attended by the French Consul General in Erbil Frederic Tissot, British Consul General in Erbil Chris Bowers, Erbil Governor Nawzad Hadi, representatives from UAE's Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Retail and other dignitaries, businessmen and members of the media.

Carrefour's store in Erbil's luxurious Family Mall, a popular shopping center in the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, has an area of 10,000 m2 on two floors offering a vast range of food and non food items.

This is the first of several Carrefour hypermarkets to open in partnership with Erbil-based Darin Group; two more locations in Erbil are planned soon. New Carrefour hypermarkets in the cities of Sulaimaniyah and Duhok are now under construction and will open by 2014.

The opening of the renowned French hypermarkets' first chain in Iraq was delayed for more than a year for "logistic-related issues and the lack of finding employees" at their Erbil operations, a source from Carrefour Iraq, the local franchise of the hypermarket chain, tells iErbil (www.ierbil.com).

The source, who is not allowed to make media statements, says the reason why the opening was postponed for more than a year was "because of logistic issues." The opening of the hypermarket was announced more than 18 months ago, and was delayed for unknown reasons until now. "They [Carrefour] also needed more time for recruiting staff," he adds.

Carrefour is the world's second largest and Europe's largest retailer. The company's entrance into the Iraqi market is expected to promote significant economic development in the country and region. Carrefour's Iraq store is managed by United Arab Emirates-based Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Retail; MAF Retail manages a join venture in the Middle East with Carrefour.

"The north of Iraq [Kurdistan Region] is a very promising market and a stable area," Muhammad Naeem, an executive at MAF Retail, tells the media in March, 2010, when revealing the hypermarket's venture into the country. "We studied the economy [and] the infrastructure--we see no uncertainty and no security issues in that part of the country," Naeem explains.

Kurdistan Region is the only area in Iraq that has emerged relatively unscathed after the American invasion in 2003. The predominantly Kurdish north attracts most foreign investments, and is the country's most prosperous region, with an expected per capita income of nearly $7,000 for 2012.

With this store opening, Carrefour has become the second foreign hypermarket chain to enter the lucrative Iraqi market. In November 2009, Kuwait-based City Centre opened a 13,000-square-meter hypermarket at Majidi Mall in Erbil, considered then the largest and only foreign hypermarket chain in Iraq.

"Carrefour, the second biggest retail group in the world, have shown their faith in Darin Group and Iraq by pioneering these state of the art retail projects in new Family Malls across Kurdistan Region. This retail offer will change the shopping habits here in Iraq and will add more choices and variety to demanding Iraqi shoppers," reads a statement from Darin Group, MAF Retail's partners in Iraq.

Family Mall, a project from Darin Group, opened its doors in December, 2010. It's currently the largest shopping mall in Iraq with over 100 shops to cater for all customer needs, with anchor tenant Carrefour. The sprawling shopping center is situated in a prime location on 100M Ring Road, in the heart of Erbil city, alongside the Family Fun amusement park.

In addition to Carrefour hypermarket and Home Istanbul (a Turkish retailer focused on home products and appliances), stores at Family Mall include Mango, DKNY, Timberland, Bossini, Geox, MEXX, Cacharel, Levi's, Springfield, US Polo, YKM, among others. Tenants at the mall also include a large selection of fast food outlets, gourmet restaurants and cafes. The ice-skating rink is also popular with visitors - young and old - to the mall. Later this year Empire Cinemas will open a 14 screen Cinema complex which will add even more value to shopping in Family Mall.

Other Family Mall's, now under-construction, include those in the cities of Sulaimaniyah and Duhuk, two Kurdistan Region cities that like Erbil are in need of modern shopping malls; these two malls are planned to open in 2013.