From Yenot Bitan to Carrefour: How an Israeli Chain Nearly Collapsed — and Became a French Giant

By מערכת סופרקליר · 2026-07-10 · 4 min read

₪5.2M — Carrefour Israel's net profit in Q1 2025 — versus a ₪34 million loss in the same quarter of 2024 (per Ynet)

Some chains disappear quietly. Others simply change their name — and the whole dramatic story that came before gets forgotten. Yenot Bitan is the second kind: a family chain that nearly collapsed under hundreds of millions of shekels in debt became, fairly quietly, the Israeli arm of one of the largest retail chains on earth. Here's how it happened.

From an abandoned cinema to a nationwide chain

The story starts in 1995 in Ashkelon, when the Bitan family bought an old, shuttered cinema hall in the city and converted it into a discount supermarket — according to Mako, the beginning of a chain that would gradually grow into one of Israel's biggest grocery players. In 2016, Yenot Bitan, run by Nachum Bitan, completed the move that made it Israel's second-largest food retailer after Shufersal: acquiring rival Mega Retail, which was emerging from insolvency proceedings.

The merger that broke the chain

As a condition of the Competition Authority's approval, the acquisition required Yenot Bitan to sell branches across eight different regions to limit market concentration. The chain did not fully meet those conditions, and the Competition Authority initially threatened a NIS 25 million fine on the company and a personal NIS 700,000 fine on Bitan. In the end, per Calcalist, the parties reached a consent order: a reduced fine of NIS 2 million, and the transfer of the two remaining branches at no charge.

At the same time, the debt from financing the Mega acquisition began to strangle the chain. In 2019, liquidity problems and delayed supplier payments surfaced, and Yenot Bitan had to sell off assets to survive. That year, seven branches were sold to the Freshmarket chain for NIS 110 million, as Calcalist reported, and additional branches — including Mega stores in Malha and Ayalon Mall — were sold to the Victory chain for NIS 35 million, also per Calcalist.

A chain born in an abandoned cinema hall nearly collapsed under the debt from the acquisition that was supposed to make it the biggest of them all.

Electra enters the picture

Yenot Bitan emerged from that crisis only once a new player stepped in. Electra Consumer Products bought about 35% of the chain's shares from Nachum Bitan for roughly NIS 194 million, and alongside it the Phoenix group bought a further 15% — together giving them control of about 50% of the chain, per Ice. That was the turning point: Yenot Bitan moved to the management and effective ownership of a large corporation, with the resources to carry out what came next.

From the Israeli sign to the French one

Within about a year, Electra signed a franchise agreement with the French retailer Carrefour — one of the largest retail chains in the world, operating roughly 13,900 stores across more than 40 countries, per Walla Finance. The brand's official launch in Israel came in May 2023, when about 50 Yenot Bitan and Mega branches were switched over to Carrefour signage all at once, per Ynet. Electra has continued gradually converting the rest of the branches to the French brand since.

The transition wasn't cheap or easy: the conversion process involved heavy renovation spending, and in 2025 Carrefour Israel reported it had parted ways with about 23% of its store workforce as part of an efficiency drive — a move that helped push operating profit up 13%, per TheMarker.

The turnaround

The financial payoff started to show in 2025. In the first quarter of the year, Carrefour Israel posted a net profit of NIS 5.2 million — compared with a NIS 34 million loss in the same quarter of 2024, per Ynet. According to Calcalist, the full year closed with consecutive quarters of profitability, with operating profit as a share of revenue improving to about 4.9%, per Calcalist. Against that backdrop, TheMarker reported that Carrefour Israel is in talks to expand its operations and is moving toward a stock market listing, reportedly targeted for 2026, per TheMarker.

What it means for shoppers

For anyone shopping at a store that used to be called "Yenot Bitan" or "Mega Ba'ir," the name on the sign has changed more than once in the past decade. But the question that hasn't changed at all is where it actually pays to shop — and the answer to that, as always, doesn't depend on the name on the sign. It depends on the price data that every chain, Carrefour included, is required to publish every day.