The brandnew chairman of retail group Carrefour, Luc Vandevelde, has suppressed rumours of a potential merger with rival Tesco. He revealed that he plans on keeping the business independent. Vandevelde joined Carrefour two weeks ago from Marks & Spencer. He succeeded Daniel Bernard, who resigned from Carrefour recently after running the group for 13 years.

Carrefour is the world's seond-biggest retalier but has been losing favour in the French market in the past few years. Last October it was forced to issue a profit warning. At present, the group operates 10,400 stores in 29 countries.