Paris, April 19 - French supermarket group Carrefour has not felt a serious effect on sales from anti-French protests in China but is concerned by the anger felt there, the group's head Jose-Luis Duran said in an interview.
"Despite some localised incidents, we have not at this point felt any significant impact on the sales of our 112 large supermarkets," Duran told French weekly Journal du Dimanche (JDD) in an interview released on Saturday ahead of publication.
"But we are taking the situation very seriously."
Demonstrators staged rallies in several Chinese cities on Saturday to demand a French goods boycott following protests during the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay against China's crackdown on dissent in Tibet.
Duran expressed understanding for the upset felt in China at the Paris protests and at the tone of much of the media coverage and analysis of the incidents. "When I saw the pictures, I was not proud," he said.
"It has to be understood that a large part of the Chinese population was very shocked by the incidents that occurRed during the passage of the Olympic flame in Paris."
He also rejected suggestions, which the JDD said had appeared in some Chinese media, that Carrefour supported the Dalai Lama -- the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet who is the target of fierce criticism from Beijing.
"I deny these allegations with the greatest possible firmness," he said. "Carrefour has not given any direct or indirect support to any political or religious cause."
He said the group had opened around 20 large supermarkets in China last year and intended to maintain the same level of investment this year. He noted that the group employed 44,000 Chinese employees with only about 100 expatriate managers.
"In China, we have become de facto Chinese," he said.